A Space on Lia's Own

Do you miss Gocco? Well, I actually in no position to say that I miss Gocco since I never lay my hands on them, but I do miss Gocco. Can you imagine thriving for some things and then the things are taken away and not produced anymore? Sigh.

Now you can guess how excited I was when I received a whole set of original Gocco printed cards from Lia of Liaspace! Not to mention she's a fellow Indonesian too, now that's a rare thing here, and oh please, THE Gocco in Indonesia, am I dreaming this thing?


Lia is an amazing seamstress (mental note : start learning how to sew) and a really creative and active blogger, she shares many tutorials on her blog, including the always favorite FCB and baby bibs! Go have a visit.

Art Swap : Mailed!

It's official! I made a quick run to the post office today and mailed my Art Swap package. Yaaay! My duty is complete, well, not entirely...I still have to find 3 other people to join, but this post, I hope, will answer your frequently asked question # 2 : Can you mail your swap package before you manage to round up 6 people? Yes, you can! I did it! Seriously, if I did or I didn't , nobody will get hurt, right? Have fun and join in people, leave me your email address here if you're interested, it's never too late to join!

Enjoy the package, Anthea!

ps. (why am I addicted to "ps"-ing my post now?) If you were wondering what items I put in that brown bag, scroll down a few posts and you'll find out instantly!

**Update** : I'm officially get 6 people to join!! Yaaay, where's the fanfare? And to my surprise, the least expected person I invited, delphine of non dairy diary answered my invitation and decided to join! This is an unthinkable honor! I never knew that someone on the level of craft world celebrity would like to join on my invitation! Thank you so much delphine!

Art Swap : Continued

I added some extra juice to the swap. Currently I am short of 3 people to join, but I think I will send out my package real soon because I don't want sweet Anthea wait too long.

So, these are illustrated plastic seal bag, drawn by me, using only black, red, and blue because those are my only color stock for permanent markers (mental note : go buy more colors). I love plastic seal bags, they're keeping things tidy, especially useful when you're carrying small things when you travel, really practical, clean, and you can use it over and over again.

I know! I drew too many, I can't stop! I can think of a zillion ways to decorate them! So if you're making crafty silly stuffs like these, please join the swap. Contact me and leave an email address. Happy Tuesday!

Note: Correction, ladies and gentlemen, if on my previous post I said Spoonfulzine initiated the event, I was wrong, Anthea the writer of Spoonfulzine is also invited by Anna, (she's the one who lets me know all about this), I'm so sorry for my mistake, I got it from my host, Evita. Go blame her. Tee-hee, just kidding, but do go soft on the kid. :) I'm still clueless on who initiated this event. Anyone knows?

Another note (due to popular question): A swap is when you trade all kind of things, particularly in this swap, handmade, art, and craft creation. It can be only 1 item or it can be many like mine, it's up to you. You are not require to buy or sell anything , or include any money in your swap package because your package will travel by standard post service therefore please do not include something very valuable in the package. Thanks!

Another Sun

Zee is way too nice as a person, she gave me an award! :D Thank you so much, it' really is an honor accepting an award from you!

The rules: place the award at your blog and link back to the generous giver. Give the award to as many bloggers you like, put their links in your blogpost and let them know you have awarded them.

Here's my pick, new friends, old friends, I love them no matter what; veren, rheea (here's my birthday present!), lia, priscilla, jacqui.

Happy weekend, everyone! Ta-ta!

Melon for Summer!

The sun, the air, the breeze, the crickets' chirping, the ice creams.. Summer is approaching, as anyone can tell. Sure that it made no different for me, living by the equator, I get the whole sun to myself, but I can always relate to the 4 seasons in the world. Let's say, I love to celebrate, and this is one of my excuse.

The other reason that I love to celebrate different season is .. fashion! If you think dressing up for four different season is exhausting, try living in only muumuus for the rest of your life! Fret not, this is the right season to let your muumuus out.


Considering getting your pint sized half a new summer dress? Say hello to melimelon. She sews the prettiest summer dress for little girls I have ever seen.
A mother of two beautiful girls (5 and 9, nice pair!) herself, she decided to open an Etsy shop dedicating for girls' dress. She's a proud stay at home mama from Barcelona (hey, it rhymes!) and also a freelance graphic designer. She was too kind when she answered my questions ..

Who teaches you to make your own clothes/ what makes you start to sew?
When I was a child, my mother always made the clothes for me and my sisters, so I spend a lot of hours looking at her while working and learning how to sew and make patterns. When she left us a few years ago I became the new owner of her sewing machine and a lot of vintage and never used fabrics. My oldest daughter is so thin and tall, that conventional sizes in the shops never fit her well, so I started to sew new dresses for her and that's how everything began.

Let's say you're a piece of fabric, what would you be an why?
Think I would be a traditional fabric like silk, with a spring and colourful pattern (like butterflies and a lot of flowers). I’m always a very optimist and happy woman, so I don’t identify myself with solid fabrics nor dark colours.

What's the greatest reward in this business?
Always when a customer, after receiving my clothes, tells me how happy is a girl wearing one of my designs. After all, my final customers are the kids, not their parents...
On the contrary, what's the most sacrificing thing you have ever done in favor of the business?
I’ve recently took part of my first craft show and it was really a sacrifice for me: I had to wake up very early on a cold and snowy sunday and stare there freezing for hours. I’m pretty shy, so it was very hard for me to talk to customers face to face for the first time too, but it was worthy, as I had several high priced dresses sold.

Which celebrity kids you're dying to make a dress for?
In Spain we don’t have any celebrity kids, here it’s not allowed to publish their faces. Otherwise, I don’t have TV connection at home, so I don’t know much about the celebrities world... but yes, I would be glad if any of them was wearing one of my dresses.


Yes or no : Matching dress with your toddler? (..and why?)
Maybe I would wear the same fabric, but not the same style/design. I’ve never made matching outfits for me and my daughters, probably because we have very different styles. Yes, I think that every little girl has her own style!
Finally, what piece of clothing you'd never ever make?
I don’t like “sexy” clothes for little girls, think they’ll have a lot of time to wear those when they have grown. I always try to make my designs playful and comfortable, just as toddlers are.


Wow, don't we think alike? I hate sexy clothes on little girls too. So, if you're still reading up to this point, you're in luck, melimelon offers a free shipping promo anywhere in the world for babalisme's reader. Just mention "babalisme" upon your checkout at Etsy and enjoy your summer.

Art Swap

I'm joining a swap. Again. This time it was initiated by Spoonfulzine. I was invited by Evita and was really surprised on how many people have joined. I knew about that because I'm having a hard time building my 6 invitations, as all creative people have joined in the swap! Anyhoo, these what my swap package will consist..


..mmm.. and one original hand drawn illustration. It's a surprise. ;)

So if you're interested in joining in but haven't, please leave your email address (use {at} and {dot} please for safety) in this post's comments.

Blythe Girl

Seriously, I have a thing for beautiful things.. including the beautiful girls, it makes my husband doubt my sexual orientation at some point. Currently, accordingly to the spring mood, I have fallen in love with the girl in Lyell's Spring collection. She looks like Blythe the doll. I want to own her and dress her up.

Felt in Love

I just discovered felt. Pretty late. Amazing material, isn't it? And the perfect texture to practice my so called sewing skills, hello, please, learn to sew a button first, deario. Felt is not easy to get wrinkly, or stretch up, or fray, it's jut perfect, though some lower quality felt tend to be furry.

Made this flower brooch/hairpin/whatever, I haven't put anything in the back according to this tutorial by A Hoot and Holler, amazing tut. Instead of rounded petals I shaped it more and used 3 sized petals to made 3 flowers and tiered them, I ran out of pompoms too, so I just lazily rolled a leftover felt around to its center. Sssssh, novice. Go learn sew a button!

I'm (still) Alive

I have a computer breakdown since..when was my last post? March?

Yes.

And being a high tech digital (exaggerating it a bit...) blogger mom, I thought a part of me had died, buried in the repair shop.

I deeply, truthfully apologized especially to my clients and friends needing my presence in the virtual world. I am really really sorry, and of course to you my readers. So, what happened, Cyber Mom (this exaggerating thing is beginning to sound lame)? Have you ever watched an old Warner Brothers' cartoon that features Michigan J. Frog? Well if you're unfamiliar with Michigan, I'll tell you. He's a singing frog. Quite a dime, eh? And he is found by a construction worker, who of course, has an idea publishing him as a big mega star and earned big bucks from the frog. The problem is, Michigan only sings when nobody but his master is watching. Yes, I felt like the frog's owner for the past three weeks.

"The computer didn't start.."

"It's fine here, Ma'am...look..."

(me taking it home, the comp didn't work, me taking it to the shop)

"It won't start at my place.."

"I'll try changing the -fill with hard to remember CPU part name- ..if it won't start again, you can bring it back here"

And so the conversation went on with me taking the huge CPU to the shop and back several times. So, I had an Easter project dying to be shared, a printable, and a lot of ideas, but no blog. First thing first, please welcome me back from the typewriter era with a really late pleasant news. These babies here are a gift from my friend Little Z all the way from Netherlands. Thank you, Zee! She has a really handsome shop and I almost cried when I had these wooden magnets, they won't leave my fridge door! Never!

Here are the rest of Zee's loot bag. Get jealous, people. :)

Missing you all!