Herbert and Friends - Handmade Softies by Torunn

Here is Herbert's new friend Klein. I'm really happy with how he turned out. His vest took forever! I'm not used to sewing clothes, let alone fitting them to a little frog as I go. I'm not sure I'll ever be able to part with klein, he's a very special fellow. I'll get his profile up on the creatures page as soon as possible so you can find out more about him. Now that Klein is finished I have to focus more on making things to sell at the markets next weekend. My nephew who is six years old has decided the markets would be a great place for him to make money too, so he's going to bring along some of his drawings to sell. It should be a fun day!

Here he is finally. I'll be back later today with Klein the frog.

I wanted to introduce you to Timothy the painter, but unfortunately I'm having some technical problems uploading images. He'll be up on the site as soon as it all starts working again.
Last night I started making a frog that I've been planning to do for a while. He's a bit more complicated than I first thought, but he should be finished soon. On Sunday nights we have a stich and bitch group that gets together. There's about ten of us that are involved and we all take turns to host it and make dinner for everyone. There's a lot of eating and drinking that goes on and most of the time plenty of stitching. I'll take my camera along sometime to show you what people are working on.
I'm off now to have lunch and work on the frog. This afternoon I'll be going bollywood dancing which I'm excited about. It's heaps of fun to learn a new routine each week and have a good laugh at yourself.
Stay posted for Timothy the painter..

Last week I went to the zoo for the first time in years. I wanted to post a few photos of my favourite animals. I felt like a child again, looking in awe at these amazing creatures. We were hoping to see Monifa, the baby hippo, but unfortunately she didn't make an appearance while we were there. We did get to see her mum that features in the photo below. It was a really fun day, the meerkats alone provide plenty of entertainment.

Above are some more friends that have been added to the creatures page. Their names from left to right are: Kalina, Igor, Gerida, Hulda and Alfred. Click on their names if you'd like to get to know them better. I'll be having a market stall at Glebe market with some friends on 4th April, these owls will be coming along. If anyone in Sydney is looking for something to do on Sat 4th, come down and check it out!
Below are some cupcakes I made yesterday. There's something really fun about making food out of felt. I'm hoping to one day have a fruit bowl full of felt fruit and vegetables, so far I have a carrot and an aubergine which feature in some of the creatures photos. I've been dreaming of making celery, but that could be a little way off.

It's been a while since my last post, I guess I'm still getting used to writing a blog. I've been really busy getting as many of Herbert's friends as possible up on the website. You can see them all here.
Felix is one of the recent recruits to Herbert's little gang, you can check him out here. He carries a calculator wherever he goes which inspired me to make a calculator broach, this has been my latest project. I think it's pretty cute so there will be more to come. I've been making some other broaches as well which will be up on the site very soon.  

I've finally added some creatures to my website. Here are Ms Turncoat and Mr Snoot respectively. I really enjoyed playing around with these snail designs and am very happy with how they turned out. You can check them out on my creatures page or here and here. More creatures coming soon..

This is my first blog post for my softies. I find the process a bit intimidating but will persevere none the less. Here is a photo of my little creatures in their home, the bookshelf. They've been complaining that it's getting overcrowded and some of them are ready to move out into the world and discover new things. So following their requests I have started the process that will hopefully lead to some of my creatures finding a new home.

I started making toys last year in July when two of my best friends got engaged. I wanted to give them something special to mark this milestone in their lives, so I found some patterns and made two little characters, and a tree of love. Unfortunately I didn't take photos of them but I do visit them every now and then. After making these first few things I just couldn't stop, so here I am putting them out there for the world to see.

Herbert is my accomplice in this process. He was created just after the first couple and is therefore the oldest and wisest of all the little rascals that inhabit the bookshelf. He has taken it upon himself to help out with the website and other business-like things. I am very grateful for his help, I couldn't do it without him.