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Work in progress

Hair flowers are my absolute favourite clip to make. That's probably why I make more of them than the blossoms or rosettes (and from the sales, you guys seem to think the same).

Lots of new fabric cut and ready to sew.

Sewn flowers.

Flowers waiting to be assembled. If see you one you like and want it in a particular orientation, email me at indyandtheninja@gmail.com

Trouble with Etsy

I have been having trouble logging onto Etsy the last few days but no idea why. There might be a slight delay answering convos unless you are emailing me direct. You can reach me at indyandtheninja@gmail.com

Also - Australia Post is facing a postal workers strike from Tuesday 22 December, 2009. This may cause delays in delivery.

Dances with Wolves meets ... The Smurfs!

Dances with Wolves with giant athletic hippie smurfs in a world that's Jurassic Park meets Fern Gully?

Jokes aside, this was a fabulous movie. Yes, the plot is a pretty simple one - Dances with Wolves and Last Samurai - are examples of that. I am not convinced about those stupid 3D glasses though.

An Upsy Daisy Birthday

My neice is a huge fan of In the Night Garden and won't sleep without her Upsy Daisy doll. This is a cake I originally wanted to make for her first birthday, but last year children's cake decorating was so new to me that I settled for a much easier bear covered in flake chocolate.

But a year later, I revisited the idea and decided it wasn't really that hard - it was just the hair I was stuck on. Cutting 7-10 banana shapes out of cake and icing them seemed to be asking for things to go wrong.

The cake itself is no star recipe. I used Nigella Lawson's Buttermilk Birthday cake - the same recipe I used last year. You could easily substitute packet cake mix. The icing is chocolate buttercream for the face (with some red and yellow food colouring added to warm up Upsy's complexion), and vanilla buttercream tinted pink (both Magnolia recipes).

What was different this year, was that I found these:

With a little microwave magic, three of these sticks form one strand of Upsy's hair. When warm, you can shape and bend them (when cold, they snap and break). I used the yellow, orange and pink for the equivalent on Upsy and red licorice for the red strands.

The eyes are white chocolate and dark chocolate melts, and the nose is a Smartie. Eyebrows are done with ready made pink writing icing from the Supermarket.

Of course, what didn't occur to me until the cake was made was that a little girl probably would not enjoy seeing her favourite character sliced and eaten. Good thing for us she was so tired, she had a nap after blowing out the candles.

 

Grandma goes shopping

My Mum bought this blossom set from me ...

... and then gave them to my daughter. Yes, Indy. It's great that she's supporting my business! But I'm sure Indy would probably prefer a toy. Or a remote control. One step closer to porcupine!

More clips

A few more new ones! I am a bit all over the place when it comes to listing new things on Etsy, so if you like one of these or others I have posted, please convo/email me!

In other news, I am so flattered to have received my first wholesale enquiry only 12 days after opening my Etsy store. Sadly, I'm just not ready for this step. At this time, most hair flowers and blossom sets you see here are OOAK (this is not the case with rosettes), so I just don't have the production capacity to be able to make multiples! But I'll get there soon!