I really love that elephant fabric - can’t remember where I bought it from. All I know is that it’s from Japan and I wish I had bought heaps more!

Wish I had something to show you in my creative space, but unfortunately my creative space today is all inside my head and my hands haven’t had a chance to catch up :-) Speaking of what’s inside your head, here’s a little conversation I had with my 5-year-old yesterday:

Ava: “Mama, what is my brain for?“.
Me: “You use it to think about stuff.”
Ava falls silent with a look of deep concentration on her face, then says excitedly, “Hey, I’m thinking about stuff and it’s working! My brain is actually working!”

I just love that pure excitement that kids have when they discover something new about themselves. Given that the girls are still young, it happens practically everyday over here and it is infectious :-) I even had my own little experience yesterday morning.

I mentioned previously that my goal was to be able to run 10km by the end of this year. Well, for some reason (could have been due to the freezing cold at 5am or the gorgeous full moon that was lighting up the sky), I decided I was going to just do it - run 10km and see if I actually had it in me. I even brought along a mini Milky Way bar to be eaten half-way for a sugar/energy hit - any excuse to eat chocolate at 5:30 in the morning, right? :-)

And I did it! It’s the farthest I have ever covered on a run. I’ve been struggling with my runs over the past week so it was a relief to finally have a good run again - everything just fell into place. I’m not saying it was a breeze - there were some difficult spots and I kept telling myself to just “suck it up Princess and get on with it” - but I can honestly say that I enjoyed it from beginning to end. It also helped to see that there were a few crazy people out there running at that time of the day too :-)

Like Ava, I was excited and happy to discover something new about myself - that my body and mind could carry me through 10km. A goal that seemed impossible for me at the beginning of the year was now possible.

Challenge and discovery is a great thing - Kootoyoo wrote about the same thing yesterday morning. I’m agreeing with her - I need to get that challenge and discovery back into my crafting time. I feel like it’s been going stale over the last few months and this may be just the thing to kick it back into life again.

P.S. Just noticed this book when I visited the book store this morning: “Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl “. Might be one to add to your reading list if your like owls :-)

Just popping in to let you know that there is an article/interview with me about One Red Robin in the latest issue of Parasol Magazine. I really enjoyed answering the questions and it also made me have a good long think about what is ahead for this little crafty hobby. I have mentioned before that this is my favourite online magazine, so I am thrilled to bits to be featured in this issue.

One of the things I really love about this magazine is how each issue features an eclectic mix of artists/designers/crafters. This issue includes a fantastic feature on Crochet-Queen, Sarah Applebaum:

{all images above are credited to Parasol}

To browse through the magazine, you can click here and it will open up a new screen with navigation buttons. Or you can go over here, go towards the bottom of the post, and download the pdf version of the magazine.

Thanks so much to Yasmine for including me in this issue. Yasmine is, herself, an incredibly talented artist and you can see her work on her blog, A Print a Day. You can also buy her digital designs over at her shop.

I also wanted to say thank you to Sarah for the kind words she has posted up about One Red Robin on her blog over here. Check out her blog for lovely photos and handmade finds.

And thank you to Ann Marie for sending me this pic of a purse she made out of my Folksy Robin fabric :-)

By the way, have you seen the wonderful purses she is making out of ‘map’ fabric? So COOL. Find them in her shop here.

It’s been so lovely to see some comments (and emails) also about your own running adventures - they are encouraging and motivating! Some have asked for more details about my running and I do keep an online running journal. It records the mundane details of my runs (distance, time, feelings/reflections, etc) and some other running related stuff. So it is only about running and nothing else, and most of you would find it very boring . . . but if you are interested in reading about my (very boring) running experiences, let me know and I will send you the link :-)

I finished up the 2 Bunny Chis - gifts for 2 newborns (who are not really ‘newborn‘ anymore, but better late than never right?). I also need to make a few bibs to go with them:

The blue one is made from Anna Maria Horner’s stunning fabric “Cathederal Dusk”. The pink and orange one is made from one of my favourite op-shop bed-sheet finds.

And a new Woodland Girl, Celia:

She’s already been promised to someone but I hope to make a whole lot more for a solo show later in the year. Sorry about the poor photos - it’s been pretty rainy over here and I have been rushing out the door every time there has been a flash of sun and taking a gazillion photos in the hopes that a few turn out okay. But I’m not going to complain - yay for the rain!

I’ve somehow managed to keep up with the running this past week although I will admit that it is getting harder and harder to get up so early as it gets colder and colder. I was hoping to do a local fun-run this Sunday along the Maribyrnong River but the forecast is for showers and I am too much of wimp to run in the rain :-) In mid-July I start a 12-week training program for the 10K run in October - I am both nervous and excited!

Okay, enough rambling - time to get back to the Cheery Chimp who is patiently waiting to be sewn up on my craft table. Then an early night as it’s back to work tomorrow for me!

Hahaha!! Found this photo of me during the recent Run Melbourne.

As you can tell by the pained look on my face, this was at a point in the race when I was thinking, “What the HECK am I doing here?? What is the whole point of this?!“, which was soon followed by what can only be described as the dead man’s shuffle and the mantra, “I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die . . .” :-)

I’ve managed to do a little sewing here and there but everything is still in a state of ‘in progress’. It’s been so lovely just hanging out with my two little girls with no schedule and no need to rush anywhere. I do hope to have something crafty to post up soon (it’s been a while . . .).

Thank you for the comments on previous posts and emails. I am a little behind on responding but hope to catch up on the weekend.

Hope you are all having a fantastic week!

The new Frankie features an interview with Jenny Hart with pics of some of her amazing embroidered artwork. You’ll also find a quick interview with Sarah Blasko, spotlight on Allison of Lark, toy art My Little Ponies (who knew?!), and a really cute wall art project by Pip.

In the new issue of Peppermint there is a well-written and enlightening article by Tess Curran on DIY/Made with Love focusing on the online craft community, sustainability in craft, and crafting with a conscience.

She interviewed a range of designers and crafters for the article (and I was fortunate enough to be one of them - thanks Tess! There’s a pic of my Ze Bun-buns just above the pic of Allison :-)).

Here’s the list of those she interviewed:

Remember Patience?

Well, after waiting patiently for a few months :-) Patience has made her debut in the latest issue of Handmade Magazine (Vol 26 No12) -

All instructions and pattern pieces to make your own little Patience are in the magazine.

I received my official results from the Run Melbourne yesterday and I did a little dance - I actually beat my personal best time for a 5km and had a new personal best!! I was so surprised! But now, looking back, I guess it makes sense as I was struggling so much throughout the whole run, it must have meant I was really pushing myself :-)

By the way, I just found out that we now have until JULY 30 to meet the $1000 goal for Mirabel! Yay! Donations can be made via this link.

It’s been a wonderfully relaxing day at home. I think I am ready to start sewing up some softies tonight :-)

Phew! It’s done! I am relieved more than anything else - and knackered! You’d think I had done the marathon! But boy did those 5km wipe me out today.

I think it was the (unexpected for me) number of hills on the route, and also probably the cold/sore throat I have been fighting off since last weekend, and lack of sleep this week due to the youngest having a chest infection (with some vomiting thrown in too). Thankfully she is so much better now.

So I really struggled with this run and am pretty sure I didn’t beat my personal best for this distance (also forgot to turn on the timer on my watch - d’oh!) but I gave it my best effort and am happy that I crossed the finish line . . . without gagging - yay!! :-).

It was about 8°C when we lined up at the starting line but the sun was out in its glory. There were HEAPS of people. It was so lovely to see Mums and Dads running with their kids, some of the older folk giving their best (and some were kicking my butt!) and couples crossing the finish line hand-in-hand :-) I am trying to talk my hubby in to running with me in an upcoming fun-run ;-)

Thanks so much to all of you who have donated towards fund-raising for the Mirabel Foundation. You have donated $750 in total which is an awesome effort! I hope to run for them again in next year’s Run Melbourne.

Despite feeling just a tiny bit deflated about this run, I am planning to do a local fun-run in about two weeks time (as long as it doesn’t rain - I am a wimp about running in the rain!). And then I am hoping - hoping - that I will be ready to do the 10km run in the Melbourne Marathon event in October. There should be plenty of time to train- and this time I’m going to purposely train on some hills!

My parents kindly slept over last night and then took the girls out to Church this morning, and then to lunch. When I got home to an empty house, I found this note left by my 5-year-old.

It reads :”Dear Mum, have a lovely run“. Made me a little teary :-) Their support is priceless! (Although the first thing they asked me when I picked them up from my parent’s house was, “Hey Mama, did you win??“).

Have a lovely week all!

I am so excited - I have one whole week off from work! Yippeeee!

And thank you also to all of you who have supported the goal to raise $1000 for the Mirabel Foundation through the Run Melbourne. I can’t believe the run is on tomorrow - already! The forecast is for some rain and moderate-strong winds, so it should a very interesting challenge! It also means that there is only one day left - today - to hit the target. Currently it’s at $725 (yay!) so there is only a little way to go.

Do you think you can help to reach the goal? Any donation of any size would be greatly appreciated. If you can help, please click here.

Okay, you’re probably thinking “So what does the post title have to do with this post?!“. Well, I was reading Beci Orpin’s recent post on her eBay addiction and I giggled along, relating very closely to what she had written. I’m sure most of you would too! I purposely stay away from eBay these days because I know it is a temptation I simply am not able to overcome - I always end up buying stuff I don’t need and “just one look” can last for hours!

Then my cousin directed me to this video by Weird Al called “Ebay”. I couldn’t stop laughing. It’s dedicated to all you eBay addicts :-)

Lyrics are here.

Hope to be back tomorrow with news from the run!

Eh.

I think I have hit the proverbial Wall with sewing/making/general craftiness. This past week I even contemplated shutting this blog down, selling the sewing machine, and getting rid of all of my fabric stash! The inspiration is still there somewhere in the distance, but the motivation and willingness to actually work on something has been missing for a while now. I’m wondering where it has gone.

At first, I was thinking that it was because of the running but the running has actually given me more energy and is done first thing in the morning before anything else that is scheduled for the rest of the day. So it’s not taking up time that was put aside to craft. I think the Mojo may have silently but steadily wandered off when I started back at work full-time - suddenly, almost every night (when I would usually craft) is filled with non-craft stuff I used to get done on the two days I used to have off. This means craft time has been whittled right down.

These days I look at the shelves of fabric and feel no excitement whatsoever. Same with the sewing machine - in fact, I actually let out a big, grumpy sigh the other day! I was asked to submit a project to a magazine and despite thinking about it for days and days I have come up with absolutely nothing. I am also behind on the blog reading (and commenting) and have completely missed everything that is going on in Twitter land.

Sorry, I didn’t mean for this to be a whiney post but I just wanted to be honest about how I’m feeling at the moment. Hopefully, when I am back in to the swing of it again I can look back on this post and know that it was just a small phase. Thankfully I have the WHOLE of next week off from work (yippee!). I am looking forward to spending whole weekdays with the girls again (double yippee!) and cutting my crafty To-do list down to half of what it is now. That’s the plan anyway. Now, I just have to figure out how to woo that runaway Mojo back home to me before the weekend . . .

* I know the photo is completely unrelated to the content of this post but when I searched for “large wall” on Flickr, this came up - it was too cute to ignore :-)

Here we are at her party:

Besides the birthday parties, the two other highlights from the weekend included making a hearty beef + chorizo sausage casserole stew/soup thing from scratch (I am so not a cook so this is nice little win for me! :-)) and discovering that soaking clothes in a mixture of white vinegar and baking soda overnight really does get the stink out of them! Exciting stuff eh?

Before you turn away, bored to tears by what I have written so far, here are some recent good finds to share:

New additions to my blog feed reader:

>> Senorit Pil: She creates such beautiful characters, capturing them in perfectly whimsical photos.

>> Rachel Powers: Author of “The Undivided Heart” has a blog too and I have really been enjoying her thoughts and musings on motherhood.

>> The Sartorialist: Can’t quite pinpoint why I like this website since it is about documenting fashion on the streets and I am really, extremely, unfashionable - except that I love the composition, colour and clarity of the photos, especially the recent ones taken on Governor Island (there are a few posts on this - refer to post titles to see them all). I am thinking there is inspiration in there for some softies :-)

Blown away by the work of Helen Musselwhite . . .

. . . and Brady Mcferrin:

Plush goodness by Abigail Brown (via Dawn):

Adore this bed by Attila Design (via Jaime):

Did you know that it is only 6 days until the Run Melbourne? I am doing my best to fight off a cold that I know is coming thanks to very sore throat. I am really excited about the run - very much looking forward to it! We are inching closer to the goal of raising $1000 for the Mirabel Foundation - the current total is $665! Just a little bit more to go until we hit the goal.

With 6 days left to donate, are you able to help? If so, please click here - thank you!

I left the house at about 5:30am today, jolted awake by the 3°C temperature, and went off for a slow run. I ended up running the longest distance I have ever run in my entire life - small beans by marathon runners - but I never thought I would be able to go that distance. It feels good to know that I am slowly, slowly, inching closer to my goal of running 10km by the end of the year.

I have mentioned previously that I was never the athlete or the sporty one (still not) but I have been wondering why this running bug has hit me so hard. I sucked at competitive sports - competing with other people was never my thing. It didn’t motivate or thrill me, and neither did beating people (which was a very, very, rare occurrence in any case!).

But running is different - you are only competing against yourself, you have tangible goals to work towards, and in the process you are improving your health including and beyond the physical. Since I started running regularly I can see changes not only in my physical make-up but I feel a lot more positive these days, I can handle stress better, I am more patient, and have been more resilient in areas of my life that are not going so great.

Funnily enough it has also made me much less afraid of the dark (except the time when an insect jumped onto my neck, bit me, and I sported a nasty red rash along the side of the neck for the next week).

Plus, it feels good to be able to relate to many of you who run on another level apart from the craft/mamahood level - to have another thing in common :-)

I stumbled across this gem today. It’s so well written and communicates so clearly what I have been feeling about running. Hope this encourages you runners and walkers out there!

“There’s a stretch of road that I run on that is long and straight and seems to go on forever. I used to hate it, but now it’s my favorite place. See I don’t have to do anything, just run. I don’t have to avoid dogs, dodge traffic, or encounter potholes. It’s just me and the road. Breathe in, breathe out. Last night while I was on that stretch I began to think how powerfully simple this all is.

We ask our body to run and it does…at first not far…but then over time it becomes this machine. A simple perfect machine. Breathe in, breathe out. One foot and another. An endless repetition of a series of moves that propels you further and further along. And the miracle of the human body is that it responds by carrying you further and further until one day you show up at work and say, “I ran eight miles yesterday” and all the jaws drop. Yes…you did. Something that your co-workers consider positively superhuman. You did it. You may not look like a superhuman, but at that moment you are.

My mind flashes back to a conversation I’ve had about running. Every run is a test; a test to see what you are made of. Do you have it in you today? Here on the road there is no way to cheat. It’s simple, you either run it or you don’t. Either you win or the road wins. And no matter how sick you are, no matter how tired you are, the road still asks, do you have it in you? Even if you had a great run yesterday, the road is still out there today and today you have to prove what you are made of. Breathe in, breathe out.

The road doesn’t care if you are good looking, smart, young, old. The test is the same. What do you have in you today? Some days you come home glowing with accomplishment. Other days you lose. You feel fat, heavy, out of shape, tired. Well meaning friends say “why do you do that to yourself?” but you know…you aren’t doing it TO yourself, you are doing it FOR yourself. You lose the stress of the day. No matter how bad your day is, you sweat out all those problems on a long run. You shut off the voices. You silence the chatter. Just you and the road, alone. Breathe in, breathe out.

I know we all have goals. Five K goals and marathon goals and negative splits. But on your next run let me encourage you to just run and enjoy the simple pleasure of running. No watch, no time limit, you’re not going anywhere, you’re not getting anywhere. You just are…a simple lone runner…on a long stretch of road. I’ll see you out there.”

(Found via here, who found it here).

Happy Friday all!