Pamper Pack Giveaway Winners!

Thank you so much for the lovely comments on our giveaway, they really bring back memories of the great kiwi summer!


Adding our blog followers, email subscribers and commenters together, there were 63 entries, and the winner (thanks to www.random.org) is #45...   k.thomas!


We thought the comments were so sweet that we have added a bonus draw just for them, congratulations to Annelies (who was actually an International entry, welcome!) "A favorite memory...when the bitty grocery store on our corner lost their electricity and they invited all the neighborhood kids to come eat ALL the ice cream. Now that was one fun day!!!!"


Annelies has won a Topography Mini Stocking of her choice, more info on our Christmas products and our next (huge!) giveaway very soon...

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Do Not Be Alarmed!

Hello friends.

Many of you have wondered whether I have gone into hiding ... joined a cult ... or am currently lost in the woods of Maine somewhere ... (among various other unlikely scenarios). But alas, do not be alarmed!

Here is the scoop:

* I am in the process of moving the studio to a new location --- which is why you do not see me there anymore --- and why the place looks empty. The new location is wonderful and I will tell you about it soon.

* I am in the process of changing my cell phone carrier --- which is why you cannot reach me via that number you currently have. I am sure I have missed out on some fabulous get-togethers because of this --- but am hoping to transfer the "old" number to my new cell. Until then, feel free to call me at home or e-mail me at jrenshaw@hotmail.com.

* I also have had a recent issue with my Etsy shop --- which is why you all wondered where in the heck my shop went. No worries, it is back up and running --- www.thishandmadelife.etsy.com --- with some fabulous new goodies and more on the way.

* You have also not seen me at the local bar --- which is why you wonder whether I have joined AA. No worries --- I will be back to my Wed. night drinking ritual asap. Just have to get the studio moved, my Bro's wedding pics done, among other pressing projects.

So, have a drink for me. I look forward to getting my life in order and sharing details of the new studio asap. I also have PLENTY of new pics to share in the near future (you didn't think you were off the hook yet with my Disney vacation pics, did you? There are still 1,ooo more to go through! Silly you.)

Love to you all.

Jodi

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My creative space: Of fairytales from far, far away, nursery rhymes....now this is how to spoil a child

I've coveted these "Far, Far Away Chapter II" fabrics from US designer Heather Ross for months now, and I wasn't disappointed when they finally arrived in the post. Heather Ross considers herself an artist and illustrator first and foremost, before a fabric maker, and the time and energy she spends on drawing and painting her fabric designs is obvious.

Always focused on childhood themes, innocence and tenderness, it feels as though you are sharing a little bit of love with your child and spoiling them rotten when you create something from her fabrics. Focused on happy traditions, her attention to detail extends even to the fact that rather than use fine-spun quilting fabrics, she has deliberately chosen to use a cotton linen, with a handmade, woven textile, to include a tactile, authentic feeling and experience.

Her "Far, Far Away I" collection drove the 'homemaker' market wild when it launched through design house Kokka, and this year's "Far, Far Away Chapter II" totally lived up to expectations. Key to the theme are the fairy tales about Rapunzel, Sleeping Beauty, and the Princess and the Pea, and the nursery rhyme about the Owl and the Pussy-cat. I knew the minute I saw them that I had to have them, and thanks to the trust and artistic eye of a super-special new retailer (who I can't announce yet!) I was recently given the chance to develop this theme and create a whole new exclusive collection. Oh, the bliss! I've literally just finished my girls' and matching boys' lily pin board ranges, and I had to share with you.

The Rapunzel-themed board has been in the back of my mind for months now. I had a vision that the long plaited ponytails lent themselves perfectly to being accompanied by 'plaited' or zig-zag or woven ribbons for the pinboard - like Rapunzel's hair itself is literally wrapped around the pinboard. I'm rapt with the plaited ribbon I eventually found and think it looks lovely next to the candy-floss pink satin ribbons.

The other board rounded out the sweet, 'sugar and spice and all things nice' vintage theme for the girls collection- it's a baby pink Robert Kauffman damask and would look amazing in a little girl's room.

The Owl and the Pussy-cat blue boys' pinboard just instantly reminded me of the 'snips and snails and puppy dog tails - that's what little boys are made of' rhyme. It's perfect for cheeky, busy, wandering, musical little boys' nuseries. The traditional chocolate and turquoise gingham looks divine too.

My 'fairytales and nursery rhymes' collection is also accompanied by an exclusive range of misty-grey, vintage-inspired lily pads, only available at my new retailer. Watch this space - I can't reveal who yet!

PS: I'm hanging out now for Heather's new range to be available, sometime next year. It's called "Macaroni Love Story" and it features images of newspaper boats; wooden peg dolls; and macaroni play necklaces. Amazing!

For other crafty projects this week, hop over to http://www.kootoyoo.com/

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Original South Boys Girls Love Affair Romance

Read-Original South Boys Girls Love Affair Romance

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For the guy who stole my heart....

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 Guess when did I got the request to design this card? Last May 2010! Gosh....so long ago....and only today, I finally got it done. Phew! Honestly when I received the request, I didn't know how to go about designing it. Because it was something different from the usual requests I've received before. That's why I took such a long long time to get it done. Luckily for me, my customer was not in a hurry to send this card to the receiver so, that sure gave me a lot of time to figure it out.

My customer said that she wanted the card to be of blue and white.....and the rest was up to me to decide. She provided me with the wordings though which I thought was lovely hehehe..... ;). I wanted to incorporate some quilling designs on the card but at first I couldn't decide on what type of quilling form I was going to do. In the end I decided to quill a heart. It's just like the other quilled heart patterns I've done before except that the color combination is different. Since the whole card is about 90 % blue.....I fell in love with it instantly. I love blue! :)

The card stock is dark metallic blue in color. It shines the minute it hits the light. Love it! Seriously I didn't know how to do the layout with the wordings like the above for the front design. In the end I arranged it separately whereby I place half of the wordings at the top....and the other half at the bottom. Then, I was lost.....didn't know what to put in the middle.....that's when the idea came to do the quilled heart. Then I made dots to connect the top wordings and the bottom wordings with the quilled heart. The design is kinda symbolic....I was trying to show a connection between the two of them.....I wonder if you see what I mean hehehehe. I can get kinda "overboard" with my designs sometimes.....sometimes only I understand what I'm trying to convey in my designs....hahahahaha. :D.

Then......I had a hard time figuring out how to do the pop up inside.....I went to do some research online to find some inspiration and I was inspired by Lori Whitlock's pop up hearts.....I loved it.....and tried to do something similar but I made it my own by changing the patterns a bit. You can view her heart pop up design HERE. :)

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Giveaway - Say Hi and you could win a Pamper Pack!

Spring is really here (finally!) and we are celebrating the change of season with a quick giveaway - some treats for the bathroom including some very flash tweezers, manicure accessories, a cleansing mitt, a pumice brush... and even some 'Botty Balm' for baby!

To enter, just leave a comment below about your favourite childhood memory of summer, or what you like about our blog, or something you would like us to blog about over summer... or just say hello!

Our lovely blog followers automatically have an entry but get an extra entry for leaving a comment too  :)

Entries close 10pm Thursday night (NZ time) and a winner will be chosen by random.org

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QUILLING GET TOGETHER V1.0

Hello there my lovely readers...... :)

I have a really important and exciting announcement to make here today. My fellow blogger Miyyah from Miyyah@Kertas, is holding the first ever Quilling Get Together this October 2010. The whole idea of this get together is for everyone to learn what quilling is all about and  to learn how to quill as well. It's also  for us to get inspired from other quillers and learn from them their experiences, knowledge and skills. This get together event is very laid back, nothing formal.....just all of us having fun quilling together! :)

So on behalf of Miyyah@Kertas, I would like to take this opportunity to invite those who are interested in quilling to join us in this humble event. Even if you have zero knowledge in quilling, you are welcome to join  us and learn from the experts there. I myself will be there to join in the fun! :) I'm not an expert quiller but I'd be more than happy to teach those who have not tried their hand in quilling before. And for those who do not have their own quilling tool, I can help teach you how to make your own quilling tool as well hehehehe! :)

I would also like to inform here that this event is a non profit event. No one will be charged for attending it or to learning how to quill. :) For those who do not have any basic tools or paper to quill, you can purchase them from Miyyah on the day of the event. She will be selling the basic quilling kit there.

Below are the details of the event:

Date: 3rd October 2010 (Sunday)

Venue: KLCC Park, Kuala Lumpur (please gather at the entrance door opposite the water fountains before moving to the event location)

Time: 10.00am

You can visit this link in Facebook HERE to confirm your attendance with Miyyah@Kertas. Or you can email Miyyah for more inquiries at : miyyah@gmail.com

Do not miss this great opportunity to meet quilling artists and craft enthusiasts and have fun quilling and networking. I can't wait to meet everyone. So exciting! See you all there!

XOXO,

Lin

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Auckland kids send their love to Christchurch kids

The awesome team at Kids Fashion Review delivered nearly 1000 care packs of toys and gifts to Christchurch children on September 21st, after raising nearly $10,000 from the auction of goods from New Zealand's independent baby products designers and retailers (including little ole us). Also in the packs were thousands of additional donated goods from the same (and many more) retailers and designers.

Our favourite blogger Maddie at 'lil magoolie volunteered amongst some other lovely Christchurch mums to hand out the care packs, and did an amazing photo montage on her blog - click here to see the kids receiving their goods. Prime News also covered it - video link here.

We're so amazed at the generousity and kindness of spirit Kate Gorman and the team at Kids Fashion Review have displayed for putting this appeal together. Putting a smile on these kids faces again was priceless. It's too easy for the rest of the country to put to the back of their minds and carry on commuting, working and running school runs. But there are hundreds of families still without homes and running water and very stressed. Well done Kate for helping make a better day for 1000 families!

One group of Auckland children who haven't forgotten about all the kids in Christchurch is the Marlborough Kindergarten morning children. Based in Glenfield, Auckland, Marlborough is my daughter Maddie's kindy, and they have an amazing community spirit. When I told them about the Kids Fashion Review (KFR) appeal, and wondered if the kids could contribute, the teachers didn't hesitate to spend a couple of days getting every one of the 45 children to write a 'thinking of you' message and draw a picture for the kids in Christchurch, telling them how much they care. I sent them to Kate and she included them in the packs along with all the other donated goods.

The kindy also held mat-time 'news' times, explaining to the children what had happened and getting them to practice their emergency training for if it happened up here. Marlborough also took the time to take the kids photos with their artworks, and document the process in their kindy books, so they will be able to share their stories with their families, and remember the event for the rest of their lives. I wanted to share a couple with you, with the parents permission. See their caring gorgeous faces, above.

Here is what my Maddie wants to add: "Please try to have a good day, kids. If you want to come to Auckland anytime, we can have a play, and you will feel better." (Too cute, she is only four).

It's kindy holidays now, but on our return next term I'm going in to mat time to read out some of the 'thank you' letters from the kids in Christchurch thanking KFR and all their contributors for the bags. There are some wonderful heart-felt messages - you can read them here.

This has been a wonderful lesson in caring for your community for these kids, and I want to thank Kate for letting them get involved. xo

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Congrats!

C002

Ok...I got carried away yesterday with this "CONGRATS!" clear stamp. I just started stamping it over and over again on small pieces of white paper hehehe......thinking that I would use them someday on any designs in future. 

Then I got this simple idea of doing these small gift cards that I can use for weddings. You see, I don't like giving presents to couples on their wedding day. I prefer to give them money instead so that they can use it to buy whatever that suits their fancy . And I would usually put the money in this small gift card and at the same time the gift card acts as a congratulation card that I can use to write on simple wishes in it. So it's a double function card hehehehe. 

I also love the fact that I finally was able to use those small peach color flower stems that I bought long time ago. When I look at all the embellishments I have.....I can see that I bought a lot but have not used them yet.....they just sit there waiting to be utilize hehehe. I just have no idea of what to do with them  just yet....hehehehe......but the ideas will come....eventually :) God willing :).

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My Brother's Wedding.

My "little" brother did it --- something he swore forever that he would never do --- he married. He committed himself to Amy Taylor --- forever more ---- on Sept 18, 2010. It was a lovely ceremony at Stonewall Farm in Keene, NH.

The facility was gorgeous, simple and elegant. The ceremony itself was emotional and tender. The food was to die for (well, nothing actually died, as it was all vegan and too delicious for words). The music acts (there were 3) throughout the event were wonderful. The homemade beer and wine flowed. The reunion of family and friends was incredible! And to top it all off ... the Grateful Dead cover band ... The Zen Tricksters ... rocked the evening.

Good Times.

Jamie & Amy --- may you grow together in your love in ways that amaze and inspire. May you always have each other's backs in every way. May you both encourage one another to be your greatest selves. May you walk beaches together hand-in-hand at ripe old ages. Know that everything is temporary --- so savor every wonderful moment --- and know that the not-so-great stuff never lasts long. Enjoy.

Love,
Jodi

TO SEE PHOTOS FROM THE WEDDING, check here periodically, as I am uploading them a handful at a time.

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Sew & Tell Amy Butler Challenge - Mini Stockings (Topography)

This blog challenge was perfect timing as I have been developing Mini Stockings for this Christmas. They are my own design - big enough to applique on, small enough to hang on a Christmas tree. There is a pocket between the coloured and the white layers so they can actually work as stockings (for tiny gifts!) as well as tree ornaments. There is some soft wadding inside to hold their shape.

The Amy Butler fabrics I had on hand were the Full Moon Polka Dot in Slate (from the Lotus Collection, and my most requested fabric for Baby Alphabet Shirts) and Martini in Blush (Midwest Modern). Aimee very kindly gave me some scraps of Polka Dot in Cherry which I think has come out really well on plain red.

Each stocking is approx 17cm from where the ribbon is attached, to the toe.

I can't wait to see what everyone else has come up with at www.amylouwho.com, there are so many amazing Amy Butler fabrics to choose from!

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Christmas spoiler alert: heirloom dolls

I really hope my children, Miss M and Baby L, don't see these on my computer screen - nor my niece Miss T. If they do, my Christmas surprise from their Gran will be spoilt! Check out what the amazing Jennie @ A Little Vintage has done for me! Dolls made especially in their image and 'upcycling' some very special fabrics. Read Jennie's blog for the full story of how and why they were made the way they were.

Thnx Jennie - this means so much to me! xoxo

(And thanks Mum - Gran - for parting with special sentimental family fabrics xoxo)

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Amy Butler sew challenge - NZ entries!

So I've told you before about how much we love Amy Butler. Turns out, there are so many Amy Butler fans around the world that there's a massive flickr group with over 10,400 products in there!

And one of her biggest fans is blogger amylouwho, who is holding an open competition this weekend for people all around the world to link to and blog about their products they've made using Amy Butler's fabrics. The prizes are great, and Kiwis can enter. I've rustled up the following Amy Butler lovers:

Pictured above: clockwise from left to right:

Greta @ Topography (Christmas decorations; brooches; luggage tags)
Rebecca @ Little Paper Bird (cross-over dresses)
Leigh @ CoolCrib (baby shoes)

Keri @ Holly Chic (baby bedding)

Aimee @ Lily Pad Designs (lily aprons with Topography; Christmas Card Keepers)

And there will be more over the weekend!

Check out all the other AMAZING entries on AmyLouWho's Sew & Tell Challenge Page!

And here's a selection from the wider flickr group - check them out for yourselves!!!

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I miss you....

V033

A good friend of mine requested me to make this card for her last night. I told her that I'm still on leave.....but it's very very important to her it seems for me to do it last night, so I did it anyways.  Kawan punya pasal......siapkan juga laaaa......hehehe.....Aaaahhhhh.....people in love simply just can't wait can they?  They can be so impatient hehehehe......

I've done quilled hearts before......quite a few designs with various color combination on a beige colored card but this time around I did it using one of my favourite color combo which is the red, white and maroon combo on a black colored card. I've used this color combination many a times before for a few love theme cards. So I thought it would be nice to use it for one of my quillled hearts designs. I'm surprised on how it turned out. I'm glad my friend loved it so much :).

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Sew & Tell Challenge: Cool Crib Shoes for Crawlers!

A new crafty friend of ours, Leigh, makes divine baby shoes and she made these ones especially this week to enter the Amy Butler competition. As she doesn't have a blog, here's her blog entry:

Because you're never to young for cool shoes! CoolCrib is a range of beautiful cot shoes for newborns through to six months. Fun yet functional, they are gentle on babies skin and designed to stay on.

CoolCrib have designed a unique one-off pair of shoes for the Amy Butler competition using scraps of fabric from the August Fields collection - they have been crying out to be used! These shoes will be donated to the FeltAid shop to help raise to the rebuilding and clean-up of Christchurch.

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Etsy Shop Difficulties.

I am sorry to report that somehow my Etsy shop has been deleted. I am terribly frustrated by this, as are several of my customers. I have contacted Etsy and am currrently working with them to get my shop back online. Meanwhile, for those of you who have contacted me regarding your orders and/or your attempts to order ... I will send out open orders asap ... and if anyone needs a journal, you can still purchase from me directly by e-mailing me at jrenshaw@hotmail.com.

Sorry for the trouble. All will be well soon.

Love,
Jodi

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Sew & Tell Challenge: my finished Xmas boards!

(Hello to all the American Sew & Tell Challenge readers following Amylouwho!!! Welcome to New Zealand's Amy lovers!)

Right - finally after many late nights I've finished the Christmas Card Keepers! These have just gone up for sale on my Felt Store http://www.lilypad.felt.co.nz/ this week and priced for $NZ28 - a bargain! But I chose the price as I really want to encourage people to get into the swing of bringing back Christmas Cheer and encouraging kids to get in traditional crafts.

As promised, I will send each buyer's children a 'card from Santa' in the mail to start your board off. These are going to be handmade with love by Greta's sister - check out her range on Topography's site.

As a second encouragement - in October OTLP will be running a giveaway of our Christmas products of your choice of colours - it will be a two tiered prize approach. One of the prizes will be six pack of the GORGEOUS Songbird Designs Christmas Cards - those featured in the photography on my boards. All designed by a lovely crafter here in New Zealand and divine. Follow this blog to find out more details on how to enter...

So - three ways to buy:

1. Visit my online store http://www.lilypad.felt.co.nz/ and choose your favourite design

2. Buy the Amy Butler Cherry Spot Christmas board I've donated to the FeltAID Christchurch earthquake appeal at http://www.feltaid.felt.co.nz/

3. Visit Greta and I on our stand at the Devonport Craft Market - Oct 3rd.

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Prizes posted!

Yay!....after so many weeks since the announcement of the August 2010 Blog Giveaway's winners, finally I  managed to get all the giveaway cards done and got them posted  to the lucky winners yesterday. Unfortunately, I'm a bit unhappy about it as well because there are 2 more winners who did not respond. You see, after waiting for 22 days, I only managed to get in touch with 6 out of the 8 winners of the giveaway....All 6 of them have emailed me their contact details so that I can post the prizes to them. I will still keep the remaining prizes for the other 2 winners in case one day, they decide to contact me to claim their prizes.

If you look at the 3rd photo at the bottom, it's actually a small gift card that I made for the winners hehhehe.....I was just playing around with my new clear stamp. It was given to me by my dear friend CC. She gave me quite a few clear stamps that I love love love so much!! But the thing is, I'm always finding it difficult to get an idea for the clear stamps.....where to stamp them in what type of design....and etc etc......hehehhehe.....I just can't decide. In the end I finally gave it a try with the "CONGRATS!" stamp. You see, I usually include a note inside each prize that I give to the winners. Sometimes I use the handmade cards that I made a while back.....but since I wanted the cards to look alike for all the winners, and I didn't have 8 available cards in hand, so that's why I made these cute ones using the clear stamps. They are so simple and fast to make! hehehehe......and cute too! hehehe :D

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Disney 2010: Day 2: Epcot Living Seas.

The Living Seas has always been one of my favorite attractions at Disney World's Epcot. During this particular trip, I was not as focused on picture taking ... so there are only a select few random pictures ... such as ...

... a really cool poisonous fish ...



... an extra cool jellyfish ...

... Isaac enamored by the gorgeous fish ...

... and the kiddos being eaten by a shark ...

Just kidding! Humans "are friends - not food". Silly you.

We ran around the place - peeking in at manatees, dolphins, sea turtles, sharks, etc. The whole place was wonderfully reconstructed to flow with the Finding Nemo movie. Plenty of educational opportunities and fun. I could have stayed all day.

Here is a glimpse of the newer Turtle Talk with Crush attraction --- as Isaac experienced it :)

And here is a glimpse of one of my favorite restaurants in all the Magic Kingdom, The Coral Reef ... (the Seared Scottish Salmon is to die for!) ...

Yes, we missed Erica. And wanted her to see the sharks all around us. I LOVE eating fish right in front of fish. I am sick that way.

More goodies to share soon ...

xo,

Jodi

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My Creative Space - Cute as a button

My projects seem to be getting smaller and smaller, but I think this is as small as I can get with applique - brooches about 3.5cm wide.

I love that I can use up scraps of fabric, and that after the applique I can do the rest while I'm sitting on the sofa.

Covered buttons have always fascinated me, and that's what I wanted them to look like, so I have covered a plastic circle with some wadding and the applique, and backed it with felt and a pin. I also have my eye on some covered-button hair ties (by Songbird Designs) on FeltAid...

The third photo is another 'little' project that is coming together for the Amy Butler competition this weekend, details here if you haven't seen them already.

Check out www.kootoyoo.com every Thursday to see what hundreds of other people are up to.

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Feedback on lily pad colours?

This week I've finished a new navy-based pad for my lily pad pram liner range in a gorgeous Amy Butler 'wildflower' pattern from the Daisy Chain collection. However now that I've made it - I'm not sure about it. I think perhaps the flower picture gets a bit lost in the shape of the liner, which is a shame, and also the pattern is very bold - the turquoise very bright. I'm not sure that it fits my more traditional, damask-based, vintage-inspired range of patterns for the rest of the pads. Can I seek your feedback please?

Here's a picture of it beside one of my other new creations - a lily pad in a gorgeous pale pink and vintage grey - also from the Amy Butler Daisy Chain collection. This is a sneak peak at one of a new range of four colours exclusively designed for one of New Zealand's most divine and gorgeous baby stores - stay tuned to find out who!

Check out the other Amy Butler patterns in the international competition happening this weekend on amylouwho!

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Korean Girl Cha Ye Ryun Fashionable Dress Fashion Photography

Read-Korean Girl Cha Ye Ryun Fashionable Dress Fashion Photography

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Kids Clothes Week Challenge!

So yet another bloggy challenge has been issued by one of the American mum blogs I follow - this one is a Kids Clothes Week Challenge! The challenge is to spend one hour a day for a week (September 20-27) sewing clothes for your kids, and then pop the results up on a flickr group. It's only Tuesday (Monday in the US!) and already there are over 988 entries in the flickr group and 424 comments on her blog about it - now that's some SERIOUS blogging power!!!

I checked out a few pages and one of the entries that jumped out at me was a gorgeous little sunfrock made from the same Amy Butler fabric 'Periwinkle Bali Gate' that I use on my blue lily pad. Isn't it divine! Imagine a little one year old or an 18 month old relaxing on a walk in a pram with a popsicle, in a matching sunfrock and lily pad pram liner! Oh the style!

I also love the 'big butt baby pants' by Made By Rae (who I follow) - she's seriously cool and has pointed me in the direction of several absolutely non-fail sewing patterns for mums and kids. Especially the McCall's 5388 women's top pattern, which Rae has modified a million times to make cool shift tops that are friendly to post-baby tummies!!!

Rae's 'big butt baby pants' above are going into the flickr pool, and are especially for kids who wear MCNs (modern cloth nappies) and need a bit more room in the rear - my baby no.2 wears MCNs and I seriously love them. So in my book these pants are gorgeous!

The Kids Clothes Week Challenge and flickr group is worth a look, even if it's just for a bit of "fall" Northern Hemisphere-style inspiration for future projects. There are also giveaways of sewing patterns each day, using random.org, so you might get lucky!

I might pop up this wee 'bumblebee' hoodie I made Lori on the flickr group, complete with yellow tulle wings on the back.

I'll also try to convince Greta to enter her Spring Lamb and Kiwi t-shirts she's completing for the winner of our KFR charity auction pack.

Happy crafting and sewing!

PS: Don't forget Kiwis and Aussies can enter the Amy Butler competition we blogged about the other day - entries close on Friday this week!! I'm entering my new Christmas Card Keepers!!!

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