Dollies

Evie recently learnt how to say "Dolly", so I thought I'd share some photos of her Waldorf dolls. The 3 sitting in a row are from Little Jenny Wren on Etsy, and they have flown over from Launceston In Tasmania. The one in the middle is a cushion doll, and the other two are 12" dolls. I love that they have hand knitted singlets and knickers, as with Waldorf philosophy, children must be kept warm so that their internal organs can develop properly, so the dollies need to be kept warm too. I made their clothes.
The baby in the cradle is from Oak Way on Ozebaby. I bought the cradle from the local flea market and painted it white, as it was painted in purple and cream, with Minnie mouse stickers on it when I bought it (yuck!). I made a little mattress to go under the doll, but I've yet to make her a quilt or blanket.
Waldorf dolls are made from natural fibres, cotton for skin, with pure wool stuffing so they hold the warmth of the child. They have minimal facial features, so the child can imagine it to be happy, sad, angry etc, rather than being in a fixed emotion. This way the doll can be the child's alter ego, and he or she can express themselves through the doll. So it's equally as important for boys to have boy dolls.

We went walking again today, same track as last week, but wanted to see where the track ran out. It ran out about 10 metres from where we stopped last week. We took some photos this time, the first one is the man-made lake, the second is of Evie trying to escape from the pusher. We checked out the farmer's market at West End yesterday on my brother's recommendation, it was pretty good. I was getting a bit sick of our local one, as it appears that many of the stallholders just go to central markets and buy fruit & veg to sell on to the consumer- we bought a bag of carrots only to find after we'd returned home, that they were grown in Tasmania. Now that's a loooong way from Brisbane, a few too many food miles accumulated for my liking. So anyway, we'll be going back to the real farmer's market in West End from now on methinks. Andrew was a little put off by a male recorder player at the market (who claims to be a gypsy), who played very deliberately at children going by. I quite liked it though. Other than that, I've just been baking more hot cross buns (I know, Easter's over!), and banana walnut muffins (Evie loves them), and doing a little sewing for my Etsy shop, and making myself some pyjama pants.

Happy Birthday Andrew!
Originally uploaded by anryan3215

It's Andrew's 27th birthday today, so Evie & I made him a ginger cake. We don't have any nice berries or even flowers at the moment, so wooden fruit will have to do for decoration :) His present from us is in front of the cake, a sterling silver guitar pick with his name stamped into it. It came from an Etsy seller in the UK. Andrew also received some lovely gifts from family, one even hand delivered from my brother James (Jim) who is in Brisbane for a conference. He was also very lucky to receive his birthday money twice from my Grandma, I think she forgot that she gave it to me to give to him when I was in Geelong a month ago. Ah well, it all evens out, I missed out on a Christmas present from her (shhh, don't tell her!)

Happy Easter
Originally uploaded by anryan3215

We had a lovely few days as a family over easter. Evie enjoyed having daddy home ALL the time for 4 days, and certainly gave him a workout! We hid about 15 eggs around the house, and it was funny to watch her as she discovered them (some quicker than others). She wanted to eat each one as she found them, so we ended up with a rather large bowl of partly eaten eggs. We went for an early morning walk to burn off some sugar, and discovered a little nature trail not too far from our house (thanks for the heads up mum & dad!). There was a man made lake with ducks, and we saw a couple of brush turkeys, and there was a playground in a green space down the track.
The gorgeous felted eggs in the photo are from Waldorf Mama on Etsy, all the way from Texas, USA.

My handmade soap
Originally uploaded by anryan3215

Here's a pic of my soap, to go with the previous blog entry. Bear with me while I sort out this adding a photo to your blog post thing.

Missus Moonshine

I thought I should explain my blog name. No, I'm not into illegal brewing. It's just a name I came up with as a brand name for my soap some years ago. I don't use the name anymore, I don't use a name at all now. But it's hard naming a blog when every name you think of has already been taken. Or your husband is coming up with names with a German theme (I'm not German, never been there either). So there you go.
I've been making soap since the year 2000, back when I was still living with my parents. I made up to 10 different varieties back then, now I stick to 3- Lavender & Oatmeal, Rose Geranium & Patchouli, and Peppermint & Lavender. I make about 3 or so batches per year which keeps us in soap, and is good for gifts (I slip one into Etsy packages when I'm feeling generous. I sell some occasionally too.
I use the cold process method to make soap, and I only use vegetable oils, pure essential oils, herbs and clays for colouring. I use beeswax to make the soap a bit harder, it also makes it last longer. I've never had to buy soap since I left home, that is pretty satisfying :)

img_2800
Originally uploaded by anryan3215

This photo of Evie was taken on Saturday, wearing her gnome dress that I made late last year- it finally fits and looks rather gorgeous on her, with her big blue eyes. I love Heather Ross' "Lightning Bugs" line of fabric, so I had to use some for Evie's wardrobe. I also made her a smock top in the yellow version of this fabric. The fabric is very cute for boys as well, and I have two t-shirt and shorts sets in my Etsy shop, one in each fabric, and a pair of baby slippers in the blue gnome fabric.

Hello there!

Hello, and welcome to my new blog.

I hope to share some of my day to day life with you, what Evie's doing (for family and friends back home in Geelong), my sewing, occasional soap making, gardening (once we have or own patch of dirt that isn't rented), and maybe some tips for lightening your footprint on the planet.

I love to sew, especially children's clothes, as they are quick and simple, and you can be very creative with your designs, much more so than with adult clothes. I now have an Etsy shop for my children's clothes, as I need a creative outlet, and Evie really has more clothes than she needs. I like to design and make clothes that I'd like to purchase if I couldn't sew. There's nothing I can't stand more than walking into certain stores and finding wall to wall pink for girls, coupled with licensed character prints emblazoned all over the clothes. Don't get me wrong, I like pink, but it's not the only colour for girls. I love to use Japanese fabrics, and fun novelty prints, all in natural fibres. I'm not a fan of synthetics. The majority of my creations are one of a kind, sometimes I'll make two, or make another in a different size if someone requests. I'm also open to custom orders.

Any way, enough ramblings, I hope you'll visit my blog again soon, and that I haven't bored you senseless :)