playing catch up

After spending a lovely afternoon catching up with this super lovely crafty-lady and her hubby, I feel all inspired to do my own bit of catching up in the teacups world. Mr Monkey has been finished for a couple of months now and is the secret to mummy getting up to a good three hours quiet time during the day. I'm very pleased to report that Little Mr Teacups has grown very fond of his little friend but I have been warned to make Mr Monkey the 2nd in case of emergency! Lucky for me there is enough fabric in the stash to do so, but finding the time... well that's another story.

finally a craft project

Before Little Mr Teacups I was very good when new babies were being born, making little softies as presents. And yet with my own I have never found the time... I am determined though! Before we have the 1st birthday (in about a month) Mikey the Monkey WILL be made... Maybe this post will be the encouragement I need (or guilt me into it!). I am co-ordinating fabrics now from my stash which in itself could take a while. You can find the pattern here.

some new additions

Introducing Little Mr Oliver and Little Miss Maya. Both of these cuties are on their way to new homes where they will get lots of cuddles from their new little owners. The Baby Chibi Doll pattern is by the very talented Jhoanna from One Red Robin... Can you tell I'm trying to finish all projects before my own bundle of joy arrives?

another doll bites the dust

It was my older sister's birthday last week and as always I had the dilemna... what do you buy someone who has everything?? With my newfound sewing powers and crafty ways, I soon came up with the perfect solution. While you may have noticed that I am a huge believer in the "Ways of the Co-ordinated", I learnt absolutely everything I know off my sister, the Matching Master. So without further ado, may I present the Divine Miss Marie! She wears gorgeous gold necklace with leaf detail, complimented perfectly by her ribbon trim belt. And a girl can never wear too much gold! Gold trim on both shoes and handbag and of course no outfit is complete without a touch of "M" bling! 

The pattern is based on the one from here but with a few little tweaks. I'm really happy with the finished result and think my sewing is finally improving (I've even let you sneak a peek up close!).

a cup of handmade romance

On your next trip down blogging lane, why not sneak a peek at the brand spanking new handmade romance. It's created by a super-crafty, super-lovely, super-talented, super-dooper friend of mine. You may recognise her crafty goodness from her pirate-y contribution to the Softies for Mirabel auction or this post. Why not stop by and say a big howdy ho!

softies for mirab-owl

The owls I made a few months ago are now on ebay as part of the Softies for Mirabel charity auction. It's a great cause so please sneak a peek and give generously, your new softie will be sure to give you a lifetime of cuddles in return.

meet kenny the cowboy

Kenny likes gun-toting action at the local saloon, and line dancin' with the ladies!

something in the water?

There seems to be something in the water these days as more and more friends and family are popping up pregnant... No announcements from yours truly so don't get too excited boys and girls (do I have any boy readers apart from Mr Teacups?). As I like to be prepared, I've decided to begin my present-making-frenzy before these little peeps make their welcome into the world. With four beautiful bellies growing I am softie-ing up a storm! The first one of these is above. As I'm unsure who the lucky munchkin receiving her will be, for now she shall be called Little Miss Ruby-Rose... Little Miss Ruby-Rose has told me that she can't wait to find out who her new owner will be, and with the first due date in a couple of weeks she won't have to wait too long! 

To even out the boy/girl bubsy possibilities, a Mr Softie is next on the list. Currently he is sitting on my dining room table waiting for a spare moment to sew him together. He is very patient as he has already been sitting there for a week! I'm also hoping to get embroidered little labels made so I can sew them on to my softies. Does anyone know where I can get these done? I've found a place on eBay but not sure of the quality. Thanks blog-land :)

sharing the love

Thanks to CurlyPops I've just found out about this amazing project. It's called The Toy Society and is all about sharing the love throughout the streets of Melbourne via handmade toys. A great project thought up by the very lovely SadieandLance!

some new friends

I'd like you to meet my latest softie friends. Little Miss Jenna came from the pattern you can find here and is for a very special little girl who is turning one next Sunday. I changed the pattern slightly by adding some shoes, a scarf and a little bow in her hair. She loves drinking cups of tea and eating lots of birthday cake! Secondly we have Mr Baby Harrison, a pressie for a friend's newborn. This is a smaller version of the one I made a few weeks ago but this time I used some felt to contrast the very cute cowboy fabric. Harrison likes sleeping and snuggling with mummy... and wants to be a cowboy when he grows up!

just owl-ing around

Thank goodness it's Friday! I've been a busy bee this week. While I am enjoying working from home whenever I can, I do have to be strict and restrict my blog-reading and blog-surfing during business hours... It's so easy to turn ten mins of blogging into two hours! I am intending to have  a craft-ful weekend though so lots of pics of my latest projects in the next few days. In the meantime you can take a look at Mr Treetop Mirab-Owl with his little Owl-ette! They are sitting high on their perch watching the world go by. I must admit I was going to try making two little-ies but I soon realised that the smaller they are, the more time consuming and detailed they need to be (not very appropriate for a softie-newbie like me). I did take some time out yesterday to drop them into Mike's and while they no longer watch me while I work, I know they will be going into a new home with lots of owly-cuddles very soon! In return I treated myself to the latest copy of Mixtape which I started to enjoy over a cuppa earlier today (it was during my lunch break - I promise!). 

softies for mirab-owl?

I have just finished my Owl Softie for Mirabel! Here he is sitting proudly on his perch in the Treetops house. Don't look too closely though as the wings were a bit more difficult than expected. He is a Teacups on Treetops original (the very first!) so I think I might call him Mr Treetop Mirab-Owl. Hopefully I will get some time to make a few more in the coming weeks... maybe some mini Owl-ettes could be cute. And of course it's dedicated to our very lovely friend Brown Owl! 

on my desk...

This week I have decided to share a couple of my beloved swap cards with you. I actually thought I would be uploading more of them throughout my posts but I'm keeping busy with craft projects and haven't had the chance. The first one is my absolute favourite. It's by an artist called Sally... I have tried to make out the surname from the tiny signatures on the cards but all is can get is that it starts with G. The Owl swap card is because I have decided to design my very own Owl softie for my Softies for Mirabel. I am very excited about this as it's the first pattern I have ever made. No doubt there will be some teething problems but we shall see how we go. My inspiration being Brown Owls of course! It's definately given me loads of crafty enjoyment and what better way to pass on the love to a special little person. 

Sneak a peak at Kirsty's blog to see what others have on their desk this Wednesday.

who's a crafty chicken?

With my nephew Jesse's first birthday on Saturday it was the excuse I needed to make another softie. I found a free pattern for a chicken here and decided to put some of the fabrics I bought a couple weeks back to good use. While I did struggle a tiny bit, after some deep breaths and a calming cuppa, it all made sense and the chicken (or rooster?) was born. And I'm very happy to say that Jesse was very pleased with it too. With 2 softies under my belt, I'm on the hunt for a special pattern to make my Softie for Mirabel. Hopefully I get onto this in the next few nights!

introducing miss treetop buttons

After a few busy days with family, I finally spent some time making my very first softie! I am really happy with her and big thanks to Three Buttons for making it nice and easy. Little Miss Treetop Buttons has now been given pride of place overlooking my work area and most importantly keeping me company.

With my newfound softie-skills I will definately be taking part in a great cause, Softies for Mirabel over at Mike's! 

on my desk...

Today has been spent sleeping and watching very bad daytime tv... yep you guessed it, I'm home sick. I had hoped to begin cutting out the fabric for my next project Miss Buttons, but the furthest I got was opening up the kit and laying it out on my desk. I haven't even been to the mailbox to get the mail... it must be serious! Thankfully I have found many people who share my postman-mail-obsession here at Ric-Rac so I'm not alone. What makes it worse though, is that I can also see junk mail sticking out of my mail box... I only know one special E-Teacup who is crazy enough to love junk mail as much as I do!!