Holiday Buzz

Got excited last week when the Sydney Morning Herald published my January kids sewing workshop in its monthly what's-going-on-in Sydney calendar:

Why Sunny's up for Sale

...been having lots of fun lately setting up my etsy shop...always thought it would be interesting to make some of my projects into do-it-yourself-kits but I never got around to doing it...well I have now...thought I'd start with Sunny...he's a happy enough fellow and easy to make... you can visit the shop by clicking on the Etsy logo on my sidebar.

...and I almost forgot: to "celebrate" the grand opening of my etsy shop I'm giving away a "Sunny kit"...all you have to do to be-in-it-to-win-it is to write a comment telling me one thing that makes you happy...I'll choose the winner on December 7th and will post the kit to anywhere in the world...

Edited to add: And the winner is Luciana...I let my daughters choose...they liked Luciana's comment about "her daughters smiling"...so congratulations...Sunny will be on his way to you soon.

...and Froggy as a Very Little Gift for Manami

Not far from where I live is a little Italian cafe called La Piadina where a Japanese friend of mine works...the other day was her birthday:

Froggy

If you're wondering who this little fellow is...well, I call him "Froggy" (for obvious reasons)...he comes from way back in the days of "the Golden Oldies" (here & here) when I first started my sewing classes for kids.

Froggy popped into my mind again when my son Saul, who lives in Hong Kong and recently moved to a village house, e-mailed some photos of this tiny tiny little frog he found hopping around his backyard:

I guess these frogs grow a fair bit...Saul  tells me that between the all-night croaking parties of the frogs, and the wailing of lone dogs he's not exactly getting all his beauty sleep...so now I've got my own little frog jumping around the garden...and I'm introducing him in this mini-tutorial.

Here is the template for Froggy.

Some brief pointers:

1) Trace around the template...sew leaving a gap for turning...it should look something like this:

2) Now trim...and turn right side out.

3) Fill Froggy with about one and a half cups of rice...pin the gap closed...and sew.

4) Remember...Froggy needs to be sewn with a small running stitch or back stitch so that the rice doesn't "leak" out.

5) In classes I only make Froggy with my "experienced sewers" as his curves can be a bit tricky to sew, especially around the little webbed fingers...so if you're making this with your kids and want to simplify his curves you can round out his hands as shown by the dotted line in the template.

6) The girls in my classes love to dress Froggy up..tutu-like skirts from lace, beaded bracelets, little knitted scarves, necklaces, bows/ribbons, etc...as you can see, Froggy usually ends up as a girl...my Froggy, however, is a boy...and here's one last photo of him lounging around the garden and taking in the winter sun:

From Ripples To Waves

...at least the rain seems to have stopped...went to my swimming spot...found the waves surprisingly big and ferocious-looking...decided to give swimming a miss even though I haven't got to swim much this winter:

...it's not often you get waves like this in Sydney's harbour...and it looks pretty strange to see surfers with the ferries and boats in the background:

Backyard Reflections

An oddly changeable winter we're having in Sydney...warm clear days like summer and now the rain has been pouring...like really pouring down hard for 3 days...and our backyard has become something of a pond. Shira and I couldn't resist taking photos...there was a lull in the downpour not long before dark...and for 20 minutes or so we got this beautiful show of ripples as the wind shook droplets of water from the jacaranda tree at the back of our garden:

                                              

The Usual Suspects

It seems such a loooooong time since I've posted...mainly because life gets in the way...which is, after all, how it should be. The last post was a photo of my eldest son, Saul, who was visiting from Hong Kong where he works...strangely, and luckily for us, he got a chance to come again 2 weeks ago for Passover...and why that fact is important for this post is because he used to make short films and write film reviews...and when he was here he got us to watch 'Casablanca' (which I'd never seen before)...and the title of this post, "The Usual Suspects", is taken from one of the last lines of that film.

So, who are these "usual suspects"? Well, I guess the short answer is: they're the fellows who have been keeping me busy the last few weeks...actually I think it's more like the last few months...time does have an odd way of slipping by unnoticed...anyway, these little fellows started as a project I set myself...I wanted to take the monsteries I used to make ages ago and posted HERE and develop the design in completely new directions...and though I'm still in mid-flight...I've wanted to post for sooooo long...so this morning (it being Mother's Day and me having some spare time) I told them that they were all going to get their pictures taken and they were going to be famous...well, almost famous...so here they are, "the usual suspects", and the cause of all my not-posting:

The boys acting like butter wouldn't melt in their mouths

More of the guys just chilling out

Our prettiest member with some flowers she picked in the garden

The boys who insisted on having their photo taken with her

And our "class photo": The Usual Suspects 2011