Hi there and thanks for stopping by! I assume you're here to find out some more information about those resin pendants embedded with vintage Kenner Blythe dress fabric, right? Well, here's the deal - I am finally ready to celebrate the not-so-grand opening of my other etsy store - retrobitz.

 
Here's the address:
http://www.retrobitz.etsy.com

See that banner? That is one of my favourite fabrics (i find myself saying that a lot but there are some really special fabrics in my extensive stash). It came from a friend's caravan! I love the combination of colours and the print.

Here are a couple of gratuitous Blythe pics of my other two favourite fabrics. The apple print on the left was one of my first ever fabric purchases, when i first started sewing for my baby girl. The circus print on the right is simply amazing - i am a little obsessed with all things circus. I have a reasonable quantity left but i loathe to cut it and use it as i doubt i will ever find more.... I have strong hoarding instincts passed down through generations on both sides of my family =D

And another pic of a little dress I recently made - i have a few dresses ready to go into the retrobitz store in various fabrics:

Which brings me back to my original point - the store will feature some clothing for little girls, some crochet bits, a couple of resin pendants and a small selection of vintage goodness. I am hoping to update regularly - there are a few more dresses in larger sizes ready to list. I am just waiting for my husband to wake up (lazy saturday morning here) so he can take a couple of snaps of the crochet wrist cuffs - it is really hard to hold a heavy dslr in one hand and take a pic of your modelling hand.

Oh - and if you have come over here from flickr and find something in my etsy store that you would like to purchase, please enter the coupon code FRITZYBITZ for a coupon to get 10% off your next purchase as a small "thank you" from me to you. Hoping you have a lovely weekend!

Kylie

oh wow. i have discovered i am a really BAD blogger. no blogging since April last year?

homemade beauty bits

well, in addition to enjoying a lovely long christmas break with the kids and hubby at home (we achieved a few long overdue projects around our house) i have been busy with making things for the market stall - it is going really well! i have also been trialling home-made beauty products. last week i finished the crochet rug started last May for my sister's 21st birthday gift and this week i have been busy stewing fruit, settling the kids back to school routine and sorting out my imminent return to working life (just part-time/casual at this stage).

i never took a pic of the finished product - this is the rug minus border

our market stall

our next market stall is this saturday and i have a few new products ready to go. one of my favourite new products are some scrabble tile cufflinks for the gentlemens. i met a lovely family at the last market - the man of the house purchased some retro coles circus cufflinks - he was so excited as Cole is their surname. it is great when you match a product that suits someone so perfectly!

so - i guess i'll be blogging again some time in 2014!

Warning: Betsy spam and wafflings contained in this post!

I spent the better part of yesterday scrubbing the old girl out. i have tried to discover her heritage, too - but as of yet, i still don't know who made her.

first jobs - new tyres (whitewall, please) and new foam cushion/mattresses (the existing ones have rat holes, are uncomfortably stuffed with coconut fibre and contain 59 years worth of dust and old flatulence - i am scared of them). it may take time to source fabrics similar to the original coverings (i love the red piping) so we may temporarily cover the new foam initially. my husband also wants to do some (minor, we hope) structural work to her.

then i think we need to find new linoleum for her. i adore the original lino but it is rather stained/dirty and fragile. i am scared that scrubbing to clean her will destroy it. but i also fear we shall never find either new old stock lino, or new retro look lino that we love. being (i imagine) the hardest thing to find,  it needs to be the first purchase. then we can select new fabric for the mattresses, curtains and paint which work together.

 so yes - we also want to re-paint the interior and the exterior. we think the exterior was originally off-white, and the interior green was a pale yellow. we would like to go back to the original colours, and i would also like a few red accents here and there, to tie in with the piping on the cusions.

the couch transforms into a bunk bed, and the table folds down to become a double bed. just the right size for my husband to lie down with neither head nor feet touching walls - lucky!

the laminate on the table and bench is pristine. very excited about that blue marble laminate! *squee*


Betsy has her original ice-box and gas oven - gas oven perfect, ice-box a  bit peely and needs work.


the curtains were the saddest part for me. they were rotting and filthy, and of course disintegrated despite my most gentle hand-washing. it was rather devastating for someone who loves vintage fabrics =( luckily the privacy curtain had been stored in a cupboard so i have a good idea of what the original fabric looked like before it became brown and rotten! i have purchased a seersucker in similar colours/pattern but once painted etc shall choose something more to my taste.

long, waffling post. there is sure to be more to come! haha (=  so excited to welcome Betsy into the family and am looking forward to building happy memories as my kids grow and we take her on fun trips!

confession time. here seems like a safe place to confess because traffic is slow. i haven't done any dolly sewing in, what, two weeks? i re-opened my commission list because i keep feeling the urge to sew, i get some fabrics out, think about patterns and feel uninspired. i thought taking commissions on would help me find direction.

instead, i find myself going in all new directions - hoping to start a market stall with hand-sewn items for humans (as opposed to dolls). the process is rather more complicated than i imagined and currently i am working on a bunch of new ideas, to photograph and sumbit with application to a local market that i love. then to work on quantities after sumbissions have been approved.

and the big, exciting news is that we adopted an old caravan! she is a real beauty. we have named her Besty, and she was made circa 1953 and is mostly original. *choir of angels sing "aaaahhhhh" in perfect harmony here*. 

today, what i really want to do is go and play caravan, but instead must tidy up for visitors, finish off max's art smock (erm, yes, master procrastinator here), hem his new school pants, finish covering his books, buy new school shoes and get haircuts. oh and do some collation work for our (now ex) kindergarten. not all of these jobs have to be done today but only five sleeps 'til school starts!

so best i get on with the jobs so i can go and play. some quick pics before i run: apple pincushions,  hooter (actually, not the best name for this little stuffed owl guy), all with market stall in mind:

 

and this is the rego for Betsty. last registered in 1973! i still can't believe we have her!

so i owe the commission people an apology. next week, after my son starts school (no school on monday, tuesday is the boy's first day of school,  public holiday wednesday - he does half days for the first week, she has whole days like usual) i promise to get back into the blythe sewing.  i still feel passionate about it but feel a bit stale? i want to come up with new patterns but then feel frustrated when i get to a third draft and it still isn't working even close to how i want..........

to coincide with the fourth issue of Tiny Feet, i have just updated my storenvy shop with three tiny clown suits and four tiny dresses. i was honoured to be asked to contribute to the lastest circus themed issue - my favourite theme of all time! the mag is a feast for the senses - i can almost smell the popcorn.


http://www.tinyfeetmag.com/allissues

please check it out - the amazing contribution at the beginning of the mag  by the talented Cookie Dolls...... her dioramas are something to behold.

oh and if you want to check out my storenvy, here 'tis: http://www.fritzybitz.storenvy.com/

well, my big five year old boy had a most awesome time at his pirate party on sunday. we played pass the parcel (or "parcel parcel" as he calls it), tug-o-war - i helped the girls team as they were one man (woman, rather) down, until they boys cried "unfair! there's a mum helping!" and the pinata worked beautifully (14 layers of newpaper held together with the old flour glue was spot on for them to all have three turns at whacking). the dreaded pirate ship cake actually turned out very well by my standards, and i gathered everyone near the end and we sang happy birthday to my boy, hip-hip-hooray-ed and then he turned to me and said "but mum - what do i blow out?". very embarrased to realise i had neglected to place the especially purchased black glitter candles on said cake. quickly fixed my omission and we sang a super-speed round two birthday greeting to him and he happily blew out his five candles.

my lovely siblings came early and went nuts with the decorations, inside and out. the huge jolly roger flag flying from the kid's fortress looked ace (it is still there now) and now we are back to the usual daily grind.

after getting the kids off this morning, i hope to get into my commission list. this afternoon i have to take my son  for what i am hoping will be his final ultrasound following his kidney surgery three and a half years ago. there is no sign that things haven't been going beautifully since our previous scan and  i have every confidence that the follow-up appointment to this scan will be our last.

whoah! all spots full for now - thank you to all who emailed me =D

i shall re-open once the deck is clear of this first commission batch.