My Mexican Donkey Pop Up Shop!

There's a distinct Mexicali mood round these parts! We have the My Mexican Donkey Pop up shop happening at Gleaners Inc in Brunswick all this month - you can find some gorgeous hand made Mexican items such as these:

You will find papel picado banners which are perfect for any feista, intricate hand painted ceramic candle sticks, milagro medals and mini sombrero brooches! 

Guests at the fiesta are some of our local designer who make Mexican themed goodies such as Betty Jo Design's sugar skull brooches and CLOCKS (too cool!), the sister outlaws' re-sew-cool sugar skull kits  and garlands (that's us), Curly Pops sugar skull cards and the beautifully made Frida dolls by A Little Vintage.
Isn't is just a treasure trove of colour? So get your flowers in your hair and swish your skirts into Gleaners and get your Christmas shopping!You'll find Lovely Liz who is the best shop girl in town. She may even be wearing this....

sugar skulls

While I have been making new sugar skull garlands (from recycled materials) for the My Mexican Donkey Pop Up Shop at Gleaners inc this November, little 4 year Joe has been making his own ....

My recycled sugar skull garlands will be available from tomorrow at Gleaners Inc! Joe's will decorate the door for Halloween!!!

new and improved sugar skull bag-tag kit!

Are you like me?  Do you have a tendency to over complicate your life? (have I mentioned the five kids???)Now that I am a few years into this designing-eco-craft-kits lark, I have realised that some of the old kits are unnecessarily over complicated. What was I thinking? Well I think it was a lack of confidence in the product and that I was perhaps trying to over compensate. In any case I'm older and wiser (and more confident. Yay!)and so I'm re-vamping some of the more fiddly kits.
And the sugar skull bag-tag is getting a special re-vamp in readiness for some muchos Mexicana mayhem which is coming soon to the hood of Brunswick. Will tell you more later....

New and improved skully bag-tag kit is still bursting with colour, recycled trims and lots of decorative floral fun but is now a simpler shape, smaller and only single layered (but still double sided.)

So if your life is overcomplicated then I hope you can find a way to simplify something today too!

There's a zombie on the lawn!

 Halloween started this morning with a visit to Gleaners Inc to deliver some sugar skull garlands. I made these ones a bit rockabilly with lots of black decorative stitching and finished on vintage black ric rac

 Liz is hosting a wonderful Day of the Dead exhibition - I got a sneak peek and was dead impressed (no pun intended?) with the wonderful skully art work on display! Looking forward to the opening!

 Then I had a zombie on my lawn!

 My daughter Mattie is studying costume and make up and went to town on her five year old sister Pepper.

Pepper is playing the part to the hilt! Her identical twin sister Wanda doesn't like it at all and says it's too scary.

Finish things Friday

Another FTF (finish things Friday)because I'm trying to stick to some sort of routine; clearing the decks before the weekend...otherwise it just goes on and on and there is no weekend - in fact, there is no end.... so today, finally, the finished the sugar skull garland...

and made about half a dozen of these plaited leather necklaces....

and some crocheted hexie brooches....

But I couldn't resist....and I did start something too....

F.T.F...well almost.

I attempted to have a Finish Things Friday - and almost got there. I finished these recycled felt sugar skulls and flowers for a garland...

but they didn't quite make it onto the string yet.

Last year I made these with the sewing machine.This year I hand stitched (and glued) them. Yes it takes more time but it was so much more enjoyable. I sat and stitched in the back yard on a warm afternoon while my legs were used for the game of elastics the kids were playing.

Magpies warbled and wattle birds yodeled. We did a bit of warbling and yodeling too.

Do you remember elastics? What was the routine? Ours was: over right string, over the left string (twice) then in the middle and over both strings (twice) then a criss- cross move and out. I also remember the routine of landing on the strings but the little ones found that a bit tricky. I must say that my ankles are not as bouncy as they used to be!

Finish things Friday!

Many sugar skulls make many garlands...one large garland for me to hang over the lounge room window... 

 and two smaller garlands as well. You may just see the smaller garlands decorating the window of and exciting new shop in time for Day of the Dead!

And for more crafty sugar skull inspiration....Shara Lambeth has a fantastic crochet pattern for a skull and we have a mini skull crochet pattern and of course the re-sew-cool sugar skull bagtag and coin purse.



a rattle of skulls

What's the collective noun for sugar skulls? A fright of skulls? A grave of skulls? A haunting of skulls?

Today I've been making a bunch of recycled felt sugar skulls for some Halloween decorative fun. Still need to stitch some embellishments and finish these off.... 

Mixed bag

Blogging everyday can be hard. But here I go with Blogtoberfest Blog #10.

It's been one of those flat out days when it seems no matter how fast you go nothing gets done - probably because you're going too fast! Slow down! One thing at a time! One of those days that seems like two steps forwards and one step back then a do-si-do around the outside. One of those days when you don't get time to go to the toilet!

There's been Spring cleaning involving window washing, furniture moving, getting into those hidden dusty corners that dark old Wintry days seem to allow us to ignore. I made three dinners this morning to get a head start on the week and had the usual combination of regular housework and being interrupted to deal with the needs of the three little ones. It was kindergarten for the twins this afternoon which involved a lot of fluster and bluster to get out the door - including a last minute outfit change....for me! All that dusty cleaning had made me filthy!

With the twins taken care of, Baby Joe and I joined fellow sister outlaw Leanne at the studio for some packing.
I packed an elaborate lunchbox of snacks for Joe, some crayons, a truck, some trains and a Hairy Maclary dog. Phew! Thought that would keep him occupied.He certainly got grotty!


We packed some sugar skulls - bag tags and purses.....Halloween not far away!

And some Turtle doves.....Christmas not long after Halloween!

Then back to get the twins from kinder and home. Now time to make tortillas to go with dinner.
Thank goodness for blogtoberfest! Without it I may not have sat down!

I think maybe it is Baby Joe who is the most worn out!

sugar skulls

Julianne has been cooking a new kit design for months, Leanne has been packing it like a maniac, and Lynne has just got around to listing it.  

S U G A R  S K U L L S !

Julianne really enjoyed experimenting with the design, and realized that there are endless possibilities for decorating these two-sided bag-tags.

We reckon the diverse range of expressions Julianne achieved in some of the samples displayed here show just how fun it is to make up this kit. Each sugar skull will have a unique appearance, depending on what you find in your particular kit, and how you choose to employ the materials.

For example. . .

embroider a third-eye flower centrally on the forehead, using daisy stitch with the yarn supplied in the kit

use crochet doily circles as eyes

use contrasting felt circles underneath the eyes, and buttons on top

embroider radiating motifs on the forehead using backstitch

go floral for the eyes and save the buttons to decorate the third-eye area

go tehuana and add a head dress from your own stash of lace

Available from our online shop, and from our little international stall on big cartel. We hope to add other stockists shortly. Let us know if you're interested.