russian dolls and a palomino pony

This year I decided to paint my nieces their birthday presents. Actually, scratch that- last year I decided to paint my nieces their birthday presents, this year I finished them. For E I painted a palomino pony, for she is absolutely mad about ponies and horses. I haven't much experience with drawing or painting horses, but this one has developed a life of its own- look at the expression in its eye- like it was caught stealing apples from the farmer's orchard!

For G I created a family of matryoshka dolls, which I am hoping she'll like. It was lots of fun coming up with different designs for their bodies/dresses/scarves (?!) but also lots of work to paint them. I could only manage short bursts of painting before my hands were shaking or my patience was shredded!

This is most likely my last post for the year- I'm soon to head away to see my family for Christmas (and gift my nieces their paintings), then to be a Kathmandu-clad traveller off to Vietnam! Whew! So here's to a Happy Holidays and a relaxing and fun festive season :)

embroider me a garden

So, I have been a little busy. After getting derailed by a some knitting I am now back on tack with my big project for the year- an embroidery for my niece. I can see a deadline (December birthday) which by the looks of things, I will miss. Perhaps another year won't hurt this project... So from my last update, you can now see that I've added a Ballerina Georgie, a French Knot rainbow, and now a chain-stitch garden (with rabbit) is a-growing. I am really enjoying working on this at the moment- I've managed to get past the 'intricate embroidery' a little and am working on more freestyle shapes, which allows more progress. Also if you happen to be working on a project like this it helps to have several motifs on the go at once- you can see here that the ballerina isn't quite finished- I'm trying to figure out how I will stitch her skin and face- and trying to find the calm space of mind and patience to do that! So in the meantime I'm working on a chain-stitch garden, which will eventually help frame the lower half of the embroidery. I've also added some more thread colours to my collection- I'm now wondering if I may need to invest in another thread box!

Time for some close-ups:

And signs of things to come:

horse parade two

I just love taking pictures of my niece's many, many horses. Sometimes they are in a perfect arrangement.

Also: Kraftbomb is on this weekend! Sunday 27th September in the Grey Lynn Community Centre- yay!!

parade

One day I spotted this parade of horses on my niece's table... I especially like the rebellious (or confused)horse facing the wrong way. I do have many things to post about, but not today. And I expect time to slip so far by that it is almost not worth posting about...

introducing...Piggilina

Still in 'catch up' mode, here are some pictures of a softie that I have been itching to show you since about December.  I normally don't make softies, you see.  But with my little niece's 4th birthday coming up (ok- been and gone now!) this was a perfect excuse to try something new... and as this little girl thinks that little piggies are very cute, Piggilina (as I called her) was born.  

I was trying the 'quirky' soft toy think, but somhow it ended up having an Auntie spin to it.  I especially like the bow on her tail!  This softie was a hit with Miss G :)  Who knows- I could make more softies in the future!

cupcakes!

Last week I baked some birthday cupcakes to share with my family.  They were ridiculously cute and didn't last long!  Very much a treat and my new favourite thing to bake!

hanging out

Yesterday was one of my nieces third birthday. It began with a bout of excitement and present opening (second Christmas???!) and then evolved into one of those quite idyllic summer days. While the girls went off to an animal farm, I busied myself with baking an eggless sponge cake (Miss G is allergic to eggs. If anyone knows of a decent eggless cake, please let me know) which was an experiement of sorts, as I am not the baker of the family. It turned out ok, probably not as enticing as if my mother had had a go at it, but pink icing, marshmallows and blue and pink hydrangea flowers made it a pretty cake. The afternoon was spent at the beach, hunting for crabs in the rock pools (none were found, but I spotted a little fishy), enjoying the sunshine and warm water. A little party with cake and candles and other goodies followed. Singing the 'Happy Birthday' song always brings a grin to kids faces.

I like times like these. I hope 2008 brings some more. Its funny reading all the blog posts and noticing how people are getting sentimental over 2007 and being optimistic over the upcoming 2008. I of course have read all the horoscopes in the newspapers (guilty pleasure) and have had several ambiguious futures mapped out for me. I think that you read into them what you want to hear. I haven't thought of new years resolutions yet! That is worthy of a new years day post I'm sure!

See you in 2008!

at last, a finish

To celebrate my niece's 6th birthday, we held a party- there were games (including a bark-off), a treasure hunt, a cake decorated with dogs (dogs being number one favourite animal), and a small mob of suitably super- excited kids. It turned out really well.

I saw it fit to give Miss. E the cushion that I had been embroidering for her since she was a lttle one year old. Five years of work is quite long enough. I recall excitedly writing in September that I would finish the work soon, but it turned out to linger on for a few months longer. This didn't really seem to matter as it was gifted at an appropriate time! I was slightly nervous about gifting it- it was my baby as much as anything. I shouldn't had worried. Soon she was off showing her friends with a "Look what my Auntie made me!". :)

Crafts, I tell you, well worth the effort!

one fish, two fish

I moved my goldfish (Onefish and Twofish) in the weekend. I sat them in the passenger seat and buckled them in. And my niece made them this card :)

Update (14.12.07): Sadly Twofish (the black one) passed away not long ago. I think possibly from the shock of moving, and not having the filter on for a long period. You will be missed little fish.