More customs

I have dresses coming out my ears today! Finishing off these custom orders.

2 dresses for Dan's little Scarlett.

The first is a grassy plains peasant dress. I am still so in love with this fabric. It never gets old. It feels to me like a weird and wonderful dreamscape that you can lose yourself in.

And the back is like looking up at the big night sky:

Do you like my new rainbow woolly nylon?

And this one is a Very Hungry Caterpillar dress.

I do like the candy cane armholes (if I may say so myself).

And here is a dress for Nadja's Maxie.

I have been starting to open up some custom slots on my facebook page.  I have decided to have about 5 slots open at a time, so as I finish off one or two I'll open some more. For those who aren't on facebook and would like a custom, you could email me your request and I'll let you know if there is space. There is currently a 4 week wait on customs.

In other news, I won't be doing a regular stocking for May because of the Firefly Collective gig. Will show you what I'm working on for that soon!

Random acts

Sweet Mr mangolime bought me a present yesterday. For no reason. (Except it goes with all my cups).

Its the jug. Not the toy TV. Arlo set this shot up. I swear he's gonna be a stylist one day.
Happy.

New baby = new quilt.

(Again, Libby, if you are reading this, stop! Go cuddle Zander......)











So last week I was the luckiest duck. I got to help my friend Libby give birth to her second baby. I didn't have to do much, just pass the Lucozade really, as Edward had it all under control and Libby was an amazon woman with all bases covered. Watching the slippery entrance of a baby into this world is always so incredibly awe-inspiring. No words can describe it really. So I'll not try.

I started on my first ever quilt in honour of baby Alexander a while ago but other things got in the way, so I worked on it feverishly yesterday in the hope of unveiling it at afternoon tea with our friends, but some mishaps with invisible thread and mitred corners completely thwarted me, and the sensible side of me (there is one sometimes) said it was just dumb to try to learn new things 5 minutes before you need to do them perfectly. I had some more peaceful time today and finished it off. Along the way I was lucky to have some help from some very special quilting queens (Andi, Bianca), but I think they may quietly tsk tsk at my cutting corners and haphazardness. You know what though? I love it. In that hard-to-give-it-up way.

Bright hey? When I went to the local quilting shop to get some embroidery thread and proudly showed the shop owner she said (barely disguising her wrinkled nose of distate) "ooh, its very ... modern (said in the same tone you might say something like, um, "faeces-like").

Here's the back:

It is a white linen base, with circles on one side, 3 of which are embellished with hand stitching. The back has a strip of fabric patchwork near the bottom. It is quilted with straight lines pretty eyeballed far apart (technical hey?), and bound with blue and white striped binding. The batting is bamboo. And the thing is I actually think I love making quilts! It all makes sense to me now! As long as i can do it my own way and not have to follow someone else's style or pattern, I reckon I may even make another!

(Yes that is unclipped threads hanging off it! Details!)

Can I stop taking photos of this quilt? I cannot. Here is one of those bundly photos, which I now understand the attraction of.

Ok. That'll do. Wonky stitching and all. Happy Birth-Day Alexander. This'll be yours to snuggle under for many years to come.

April stocking

I am just sneaking in this stocking in this month. And what a month it has been. Especially the last week! I was so so lucky to be asked to help my friend have her beautiful little baby boy last week, followed quickly by a 4 day camping trip in the cleansing bush to celebrate my little-now-big 7year old boy's birthday, and all the while I have been trying to get this stocking up!

So here it is. There is some new stuff. As there always is. Including some "fickle" pieces for those whojust can't decide which fabric they like the best (this is me. Most days.)

And then I got all enamoured with the idea of peek-a-boo caterpillar toys clutched in chubby little fingers and hiding in pockets:



Who could resist a retro owl like this? Bring on the ric rac I say:

And, of course, there are nappies. Some new prints, some classics. How cool are those viewfinders?

So, the details. The stocking will be on Saturday April 30th at 8pm Central Standard Time. If you have a life and still go out on Saturday nights, you will miss it. But you will be out, in the world, having fun, so that's fair. All stock can now be previewed on the mangolime site.

Don't forget I will also have some stock at the Firefly stocking on May 22nd, to be previewed a few days before.

And finally, I am sorry to say I have had to increase my poistage price to $6.30, in line with Australia Post's price increase. And while we're on the subject, this will be the last stocking with nappies at the current price of $30. They have been this price since I opened over 12 months ago, and with the rising costs of fabric I am afraid to say I will have to follow suit. As of the next stocking all nappies will be $35. So get in quick while you can!

Enough yukky talk about money. Let';s talk abotu customs. UI have decided to have a custom list open at all times. There will be a limit of 5 items on the list, so that I am only ever making 5 customs at a time. Once a custom is finished, I will announce a newslot. I will probably do this on my facebook page only.

(For those who aren't quite sure wtf I am talking about, a "custom" is where you order a nappy, dress, shorts etc etc and choose the fabric from my stash. I will make the size you need, and will use my standard designs. This means you don't have to try your luck at the stockings!)

Tired now, nighty night!

Fireflies

Well its all about dragonflies here in Darwin as the Dry well and truly hits, and suddenly you can move again and parenting is a snap and and there are beautiful smells in the air and the dragonflies are swarming in the crispy 27 degree mornings - bliss! (This is cold for us!)

But its all about fireflies over at mangolime because I have been selected as a guest WAHM (Work At Home Mum, not the George Michael thing) for the Firefly Collective's May 22nd stocking! I am so excited and feel a bit like Charlie Bucket, upon unwrapping The Golden Ticket.

Now, what should I make.....?

Ric rac

New obsession with ric rac. That's all.

Everyone's a winner baby

I distinctly remember the last time I won something. I was 8, and it was the school barbeque, and I won the raffle. The prize was this very weird contraption that was a futuristic (for then) pillow that you could plug into a tape recorder. The music or whatever was on the tape would then float into your head when you lay it down on the pillow. There was some strange suggestion on the box of plugging the pillow into a language tape and learning another language by osmosis in your sleep. More tempting than 6 years of French I can tell you. I gave it to my mum for mother's day, feeling extremely sophisticated. I'm not quite sure what happened to it, but I never did get to try the learn-a-language-in-your-sleep idea.

Haven't won anything since. Till today! I won a metre of this gorgeousity:

Thanks to the wonderful Earthgirl. YAY! Thank you! Always room for more Echino....

Now what do you think? Skirts? Dresses? Nappies?