one gi-normous catch up post

Well, hello there!

Thanks to those of you who hadn't totally given up on me... I am still here! And with news to share. So here we go, in no order of importance...

The gherkin is now five months old. The photo above is just a home happy snap of the kind of boy we are fortunate enough to live with every day. Life has been an absolute joy with the gherk' of late, and I won't bore you all with gushing on this blog, as I promised this would from now on be all about craft and melbourne and all things non-baby, but oh my, he is soooo delightful at the moment. If you need more gushing you can go to a pug and a handful of pickles

We were fortunate enough to have the very lovely, generous and extremely talented h&b take some delicious photos of our little man a few weeks back. I haven't posted any of the photos here, as I sort of feel as though it should be h&b's reveal, but let me just say they are beautiful. So incredibly gorgeous. And yes, her home is as amazing as it looks in the photos (I was curious! and not at all disappointed). Thankyou lovely for using our little man as a model for a day!

I am another year older... well, not really, but you know what I mean! An odd number (good), but not a prime number (so could be better). Just another step closer to forty.... I had a lovely day, cruising around Brunswick East with the gherkin and Mr Pickles, just hanging out and thinking how my life had changed in the past five years... marriage, two homes (and renovations), our boy, and rapid whitening of my hair...

Speaking of hair, I am much much much happier with my hair now... went back to my old salon across the other side of town (I know, ridiculous, but, note to Brunswick hairdressers -you were a real disappointment) and now I feel like myself again. Also in this photo? My new favourite toy from Mr Pickles to celebrate my ageing. It's a Canon and I am in love.

Other news... I have been getting out and about...

* to Bendigo (my first time... oh my, the architecture there!!! my camera battery was flat though from snapping hundreds of photos of the boys, so no photos of buildings this time round

* to Ceres a few times

* to ikea for a very important highchair purchase

Oh! and of course I have been CRAFTING!

You saw the doll in my last post... well, poor thing got ditched. She will remain an u.f.o. until I come up with an outfit I am satisfied with. In the meantime I have finished June, who is now the doll of the very beautiful Mae of onegirl fame (and Leslie has been lovely enough to post some photos of the very gorgeous Mae with June on her flickr).

Oh! and we are having a handmade Christmas in the pickles family this year (grandparents, bubs, aunts, cousins, brother, mums, dads all creating for one another - lovely! if a little challenging...), so I do have loads of other WIPs in progress, but not sure if the family checks this blog... I wonder if it's safe to show and tell here????

Anyway, that should be enough for one post, will catch up again soon, promise!
xo


ps. coming to a post soon... our recipe for banana and date loaf (much more like a cake... yum), a brunswick east eatery update (woohoo!) and santa photo dilemmas...

shhhh... work in progress

So, [shhh] here she is...

....only just begun really, but getting closer to being finished.

I need to add her skirt (which I hope will be VERY special), and her face, her hair, and finally her accessories. And then she will be heading off in a postpak to someone very beautiful and brand new. I had a lot of fun with her shape --- I hope it's ok to give a child's doll hips?

Will give you an update once I have finished her off... xo

what i did yesterday... stitches and craft show

Image from http://www.livingcreatively.com.au/Whats-Next.html

I happily spent all of yesterday at the Stitches and Craft Show. And what a great way to spend a day! I don't have too much time to post (am taking afternoon tea from uni study... eurgh... power in healthcare organisations), so will just present the highlights...

1. Meeting the very beautiful Fi from dear fii , who is just as lovely in real life as she is in blogland. Fi was showing and telling some of her button accessories, which include some of the most gorgeous bracelets and brooches. (Check out my very favourite brooch at this post)
2. Meeting a bundle of other gorgeous crafters - totally unplanned and delightful, including nicole, stephanie, justine, kristen, angela, bianca and many others whose names I have completely forgotten (sorry everyone else!)
3. Seeing the most gorgeous garden made by crafters on the living creatively level of the show.
4. Finding some excellent fabric (when I get my camera back from hubby I will post pics) - gorgeous bright, patterned flannel which might just make the perfect wraps for our little wintertime family addition.
5. Learning about bloglines which I have now set up
6. Catching up with the lovely and very generous diana chalk again (remember, I went to one of her workshops last year?), who kindly answered some of my questions about cloth doll fingers and upside-down dolls.
7. Shopping (and staying under-budget!) - a Bethan Short cloth doll pattern (bethan still doesn't seem to have a website), an Anne Clemens cloth doll pattern, four handbag handles (I will learn to make bags this year... maybe from nicole), an embroidery hoop and a dozen papermache eggs for decorating this easter... am thinking I might use the idea by dear fii to try to cover the eggs with fabric... will let you know how it works out!

Oh, and I have successfully toilet trained the dog in his new routine, and also been studying like crazy! Whew! Now I just have to eat something, do some washing, clean the kitchen and do the grocery shopping.

Happy Sunday everyone x

josie the angel

josie the angel close
Originally uploaded by summer pickles

I have been very busily sewing for Christmas this past fortnight. Here is Josie, a new angel I have made. Lots of pink of course!
Chat soon, xx

bethan short... hooray! i found some pictures!

Some of you may remember that I went to a class not long ago with an inspirational doll maker Bethan Short, but couldn't find any pics of her work anywhere. Well, this morning I was going through an old Cloth Doll Showcase magazine (no date) and found these pictures. These were obviously early on in her dollmaking career, her work is so much more detailed and exquisite now. But I thought I could at least share these, in the absence of much else.

What I loved about Bethan's workshop (other than all of the amazing learning and sharing of ideas!) was her focus on keeping the patterns simple, but making the detailing beautiful. I love the beading on the doll above in the white dress. This was probably giving a bit of a hint of where Bethan was going to go with her dollmaking. Love the headgear too! Just lovely.

Happy weekend everyone xx

inspiration plus plus plus! a cloth doll adventure....

Okay, so I love making cloth dolls, even though they take me extraordinarily long periods of time to make (Nell took me several months of picking her up, putting her down, picking her up... etc). So, when the Melbourne Craft & Quilt Fair was in town, there was no way that I was going to miss the cloth doll classes! And, needless to say, they changed my life.

My first class was with Diana Chalk, who introduced me to a number of her favourite tools - the wooden skewer, the fruit juice straw and the forceps. She showed us amazing and sneaky ways to turn those fine parts of dolls that have in the past driven me bonkers. I will try to take a photo of me demonstrating the techniques and insert it here later....

Second class was completely fantastic, and this was with Bethan Short.

AMAZING woman... I am not exaggerating when I say that this class changed my life. She shared with us a number of her art dolls which were just divine, and all very simple patterns with beautiful embellishments. I am going to trial out the techniques I listed as favourites from this workshop and post them a bit at a time... it was an amazing learning experience for me, and I really hope to be able to share some of my new found skills in the next little while!

I tried to google Bethan but couldn't find much, and then remembered her telling us in the workshop that she is IT-phobic, so I should not have been surprised! I will try to find some real photos of her work (on paper) and then upload some pics here so you can see what I am making all this noise about... she is AMAZING.

About to head off for a wee break, so nothing from me now until mid-August (unless I get incredibly brave and decide to try mum and dad's dial up!).

Take care, and have a gorgeous beginning of August,
xx