painted doll

I painted this little doll for my mother's birthday. I bought the wooden body from a wonderful Etsy seller, Goosegrease. (She also paints her own lovely dolls, they're worth checking out!) It was a fun little project, but painting on a curved surface is a very different challenge to painting on canvas! I'd like to more of these, perhaps a few for my exhibition?

mailing list!

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i <3 stationery

If there is one thing I love, it's writing notes, lists and letters. I always pick up adorable Japanese stationery whenever I see it cheap, but one of my favourite sources is Annette Lauder's range at Nut and Bee.



Her work is so sweet and simple, it makes me feel warm inside! She's a New Zealander but ships worldwide. The notebooks are particularly good value at only $4! How can you resist? She also has all sorts of other charming products like stamps, badges, labels and recipe cards:



I have been meaning to post about Nut and Bee for a while now, and then today Annette announced a redesign of her shop and a special 10% discount off any orders placed up until September 10th! To claim your discount just enter the code KITTENPAWS at checkout. Yay stationery!

my dream room

I have recently discovered my new favourite illustrator, S. Britt. I came across him when Drawn featured his Flickr set detailing the transformation of his work room into the best room I have ever seen. Seriously, if there is a heaven, it will look like this for me. And I will sit at the desk and be able to draw like S. Britt.

badges!!!

My 1-inch badges arrived! I've made them into sets and put them in my etsy shop. Some of them are also available as single badges.

I'm so happy with the way these turned out, they look so cute and the colours are really vibrant. I sliced up big sheets of card using the guillotine at work (shh!) and stamped the pieces with my old school letter stamp set and my home-made bird stamp. I think they look pretty good!

Best Hat Ever

Last night I got a package in the mail: my hand-knitted hat from Christabel, aka Craft Punk, aka cseneque!



I was wary about buying a hat online. I seem to have an unusually shaped head, and hats almost always look awful on me. Most commercially-produced beanies seem to be made for someone with a very long, thin head, and I guess I have a round one. I have a fringe, so it looks awful when a hat is too long and squishes my hair down to my eyes. Anyway, I convoed Christabel (who was lovely) and decided to go for it. I couldn't resist bunnies!

It came last night in a package with a bunch of goodies. It was like having a birthday! I was so grumpy and tired and it was just the thing I needed. And the hat fits like a dream! I am generally pretty critical of my appearance, but I have to say: THIS HAT MAKES ME LOOK CUTE AS A BUTTON. It is a lovely shape, not too long (it even looks fine with my fringe!) and perfectly fitted. The knitting is fantastic quality and the yarn is soft, high-quality pure wool. There is even a knitted cotton lining around the edge (behind the part covered by the bunnies) to protect sensitive skin from the wool! It's so comfy and warm, I love it. I wore it out to dinner then all night while we sat and drew at the table. I wore it on the bus this morning (I was so nice and warm!) and I wish I could wear it at my desk!

Christabel has a bunch more lovely hats as well as cuffs, crocheted jewellery and hand-painted yarn in her etsy shop. I am in love with the squirrel hat and this lovely fir hat, but I've already broken my "no Etsy presents for myself" rule this month, so I'll leave them for you.

Brooches

I've been making felt brooches with little bits of my precious Japanese fabrics. They sold very well at the Made on the Left market so I've put a few up in my Etsy store.



The fabric on this one is from one of my favourite fabrics, with Little Red Riding Hood on it. Part of me wishes I hadn't cut it up, but apart from simply framing all of these fabrics, I don't know what to do with them except use them!



I love the shades of pink and brown in this fabric, they make me so happy!



This was one of my favourites from the lot I made for MOTL. I was sure it would be one of the first to sell, but it was one of the few that was left over at the end of the day! I guess my sugar-sweet tastes aren't shared by everyone.

There are more in my shop if you want to take a look!