Rhubarb the Garden Designer

Rhubarb loves being given an empty backyard, an overgrown garden or an unkempt piece of land and permission to be creative. Trees, bushes, flowers and other plants when put together in the right way can make a once ugly space become beautiful. When she isn't working on a project she travels around the world marvelling at creation, getting inspiration and new ideas for designing gardens. If your garden needs redesigning - or if you just want to meet her you can contact her at my etsy shop.

PlushYou 2010 - I'm in!

PlushYou is an annual Plush Art show which takes place in the USA. It is curated by Kristen Rask, owner of Schmancy. This year there will be 2 shows, one in LA and one in Seattle. I applied to the LA show a few months ago and didn't get in but then I applied again to the Seattle show and today I got an email to say I have been accepted! I had to read the email 3 times to check that I wasn't dreaming! I'm so excited to have this opportunity :) The show is in October and I very much doubt that I'll be going in person, but I'm sure some of my friends from the Plush Team will take some photos for me!

with a flower in her hair...

This is my current project. I'm planning on making her a funky body-warmer with a hood using the pinky-reddy wool you can see in the picture. Making the cloak for Yoda inspired me to try to make some removable jackets for my amigurumis. I made the cloak without a pattern and I didn't write down what I did - so I hope I can repeat something similar! This time I will try to write it down and maybe I'll make it into a tutorial if I come out with a clear pattern.

These are a few of my favourite things....

These are a few of my favourite things on etsy at the moment. If I had loads of spare money I would buy them all, but as it is, that would probably not be a very sensible thing to do! But my birthday is in 2 months...

The first picture is Surprise Pack by Talkproof - 3 surprise little plushies picked just for you - how cool is that? Then going from left to right, the second picture is Periwinkle Plush Fawn by Fantastic Toys, the third is Wart and Bump by Kit Lane and the fourth is Mini Marshmallow by Scrumptious Delight. Click the links to check out these fab artists and their etsy shops.

Experimenting with t-shirt yarn

I've been experimenting with t-shirt yarn. In the picture you can see the balls of yarn I made from old t-shirts and my attempt at amigurumi using the yarn. I'm not convinced... the texture is kind of hard and rough. I think t-shirt yarn would be better used for making bags or table mats. For Eco-gurumis I think I'll stick with plastic bags.

Cutting up, not throwing away

I'm making another Eco-gurumi at the moment - out of plastic bags again.

In a few months time we'll be moving to another town called Jajce. Part of packing and getting ready to go will include getting rid of old clothes. I have quite a lot of t-shirts which are now very old and have little holes in here and there so I really don't need to take them with me when we move. I was feeling bad about just throwing them away but then I realised I could cut them up just like I have the plastic bags and make Eco-gurumi from old t-shirts! So that's my next project... keep reading the blog to see how it goes!

Miss Lilly in the making

I've been away for the last few days - staying by the sea. It was lovely - and we even swam in the sea on Sunday. It was pretty cold, but it gave you that amazing awake and alive feeling once you braved it and got in! As well as swimming in the sea, spending time with friends and playing games I also started making this little bunny. Hopefully I'll finish her sometime today or tomorrow and She'll appear in my etsy shop.

The Art of Being a Domestic Goddess

I am certainly not a domestic goddess - my husband cooks dinner most days for a start, but I do love baking and especially baking things from Nigella Lawson's book How to be a Domestic Goddess.

The amigurumi I have been working on this week is for a friend and she doesn't want anyone to see it before she does so I can't post any photos to show you what I've been doing. It's a big doll so it's taken me quite a few days. It's almost finished now and I'm pretty happy with how it has turned out.

So as I have no amigurumi photos to post today I thought I'd post a picture of the cream cheese brownies I made last night. They are very squidgy and yummy.