STUDIOS

I've just bought the latest issue of Studios - a special supplement of one of fave mags "Cloth, Paper, Scissors - and thought I should show off the space I use to create and store my stuff.

Firstly, I like a chaotic element when it comes to studios. The smell of turpentine and brushes littered with colourful remnants of paint are a delight to my senses. I love sunlight illuminating the space and Vivaldi or The Cure (ya, weird combo) blaring from a high tech. sound system. Dreams to be sure. I love supplies from paint, wool, fabric and sewing supplies, paper, rubber stamps, flowers (silk and paper), brads, beads, inks, charms and other random bits of ephemera.

I love having a stash of supplies at hand for whatever project takes my fancy. Over the years I've collected and amassed a variety of things that have formed a collective in a room in our house. While it is not my ideal space, it suffices for now (until I can convert my large solid garden shed - an ongoing dream of mine). I seem to, however, do most of my crafting at the kitchen counter and ferry things up and down stairs on an as needed basis. This facilitates my need to create and watch the kids simultaneously.

PLUGGING ALONG...

I've neglected my poor blog of late, however, better than not paying attention to my family. Thought it needed some colourful photos of things that have been done around the house, so...

The dinosaur is in Quinn's room. It was a cut out wooden piece I found at Michael's and covered in Basic Grey's Archaic papers. It sits on a shelf of Love letters that my husband cut out before alpha's became popular and readily available (on that note, check out robynquigg@wordtothewall.com that custom cuts beautiful quotes in any font imaginable to simply adhere to your wall - we'll have a sample of her work at our EllaBella Studio). Just have to find the perfect photo of Quinny to put on my dinosaur.

Have also been making more fabric toy bags that the kids love. It makes clean up time easy (when energy and desire permits, of course!) and we have a hers and his section of the cupboard to house them in. Again, fabric scraps are used and I can whip one up in 10minutes (short enough time that the children don't get into too much trouble in my craft room).

KNITTY WONDERS!

The doorbell just rang on this snowy February afternoon and Elizabeth was presented with more beautifully knitted Barbie outfits. Cecily continues to awe with her attention to detail in these tiny knitted clothes. Now Barbie is ready for Whistler in her long "fur" lined coat and apres ski in her green and purple ensemble equipped with matching scarf and hat (truly, this is an outfit I would covet myself).

BARBIE COUTURE

As a girl, I enjoyed playing with my Barbie dolls. My favourite thing to do with them was dress and undress them in different outfits to get them ready for whatever activity they were dressed for. The playing never actually got done, if I recall correctly, since I obtained more pleasure from their clothes.

My Barbies met an untimely demise when I revisited them as a teen only to find my younger sister had either shaved their heads or had given them Mohawks (Johnny Rotten had a heavy influence on her life at that time!).

Now my daughter has turned five, she is showing an interest in this classic toy. Her Auntie Cecily has been making them "couture" knitted dresses that are exquisite. She knits them on tiny 2mm needles and it has been a challenge to source out finely woven yarn.

There is the Barbie sporting the "boyfriend" over sized sweater and matching comfy pants with coordinating headband and handbag (yoga girls??). There is the Barbie wearing the ruffled baby pink dress poised perfectly for a spring date night with Ken. One Barbie is resplendent in a form fitting gown, not unlike Michelle Obama's inaugural ballgown. Another outfit is a little creme number with a tulle overskirt, matching cardy (think twinset) and headband. The favourite is, at this time, the wedding dress. Sewn to perfection with darts - Barbie does have a decent chest - and finished off with hand beaded embellishments and beautiful full veil.

Thank you Cecily - your talents and thoughtfulness are endless.

PRETTY PARTY!

I thought Elizabeth's party was quite lovely and all of the girls seemed to have fun. We created little clothes peg dolls which were easy and evoked a simple whimsy. The cake was designed by my husband. It was a pink stage with white scalloped icing. He drew tiny ballerinas and cut them out with precision scissors and attached them to the cake with a toothpick. Next was the curtains which was cut from chipboard and covered with brown and pink cardstock that was then detailed with pink pencil crayon - these were the stage curtains. It was original, effective and we loved it. The only mishap happened then following day when family gathered for round two with the cake and one of the ballerina's head somehow went up in flame after the candles were blown out. No harm done.

BIRTHDAY PREPARATIONS

This year Elizabeth is having a "Ballet Birthday" Party and I want to make it very special for her and her attending friends. Each year to date we have had a themed party - polka dot, silly hat and flower parties so far. This year I have challenged myself to make and create all of the party accoutrement's. It's been a happy challenge thus far. Elizabeth chose the ballet theme and I made all of the party invites - easy to do when you have a scrapbooking business and love of all things papery.

While I am not totally against goody bags full of plastic bits (the kids like them), they do not really fit our party sensibility. We are trying to be mindful of where things come from these days too so the hand crafted route is one we are taking. I do have a penchant for supplies so I was thrilled to use what I had at hand to create all of my goody bag items for the girls.

The tutus are Fiona's design at http://www.pipnmillycreations.com/ . I used yards upon yards of creamy tulle that I had leftover from wedding six years ago. They are no sew tutus and kept me multi-tasking in front of the tv in the evenings. Together they are ethereal and remind me of beautifully light jellyfish gracefully swimming in the sea. Can't wait to see all the girls wearing them together.

At Elizabeth's last ballet class, they used wands to dance and prance with so we HAD to have them too. I downloaded a template from the computer and used sparkly coordinating papers. A piece of doweling acts as their base and curled ribbon makes them magical.

It's been very satisfying to use our imaginations to create these wonderful party favours also to use supplies I've had in my stash. Now we just have to cue the music and.....dance!!!!!

IT'S A JELLY-CAT TEA PARTY!

We play tea party on a fairly regular basis at our house. I used to give the kids a real teabag to brew up, however, got tired of finding strewn tea leaves everywhere. One day I had a little epiphany and had to head straight for my sewing machine and create some reusable cloth teabags. I cut some white cotton fabric into over sized rectangles and sewed three sides together then filled each "bag" with three teaspoons of lentils before sewing the teabag closed. Pinking shears were used to create a zig-zag edge that is both functional (material won't fray) and decorative.

The little white napkins were recycled eyelet fabric from former bathroom curtains and a yard of pink seersucker cloth made a perfect "picnic blanket".

A tea party wouldn't be complete without a sweet treat so I made fours small Teacakes out of felt that are slightly stuffed and fill the china side plates perfectly. I do plan to sew beads and buttons to the tops of the teacakes to finish off these perfect tiny petits-fours.

A vintage tin holds the teabags and a complimentary yellow seersucker bag holds everything together. It was fun to create and make and the kids love it as do the bunnies and bears.