The Janelle Wind Collection

I had a little update...

Over the past week or so, I have been stitching as much as I could, busily making more goodies for my etsy store, The Stitched Bluebird. Tonight I uploaded everything that I had finished into my store and was once again humbled and thrilled that I sold out of almost everything within 1/2 an hour.

I made and sold some of these - Blueberry Pie Pinafores...

And some Pink Daisy Chain Blythe dresses...

And a little batch of Navy Floral Pinnie's with matching headbands as well.

At the time of writing this blog post, there was one Navy Floral Pinnie and headband left too - just one, here.

I also sold a 25 sm bundle of gorgeous fabrics from my personal fabric stash as well as a custom made 'Girl Friday' bag made out of some meadowsweet fabric, with coordinates that I love.

A HUGE thank you goes to everyone who stopped by my little store and for those who support me, I am so very very grateful.

I am VERY happy to say that I have designed a gorgeous range of Christmas dresses for Blythe dolls, that I will be working over during the coming weeks. Emily and I will be putting a Christmas look book together too to give you lots of sneak peeks as well. I am VERY excited. I will be sure to give you plenty of warning before the update as well.

I hope to have a few small non Blythe related gift items to pop into my store between now and early Dec as well. I will just have to see how fast I can stitch. Thank you again to everyone who supports me and my etsy store, I am so very grateful... xx Janelle

A dream come true...

Ever since our little family started collecting Blythe dolls I have had a secret dream. I have dreamt that one day I would be able to own my very own Kenner Blythe doll. What is a Kenner you might ask? Let me explain. A Kenner is one of the original Blythe dolls that was made and released for sale only in the year 1972 - which also happens to be the year I was born. There were only different hair coloured Blythe dolls originally released and all of the newer Blythe dolls are replicas and inspired by these beautiful, original dolls. So for this reason, and many others, I have really wanted to own a 1972 Kenner Blythe doll.

Here is an image of the four original Kenner's in their boxes from 1972

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when a TLC Kenner (one needing LOTS of repair and care) was for sale on ebay. It looked like it could possibly go for a price that I could afford. With my hubby's blessing I placed a few bids and watched in anticipation and with everything crossed that this Kenner would be mine. Sadly in the last few minutes the price rose way above my limit and sadly I watched my dream slip away (for now).

I sent a message to my lovely Dolly collecting friend Mandy to tell her my sad tale. She was very kind, understanding and reassured me that when the time was right, a Kenner would be mine. A few hours later a message came through from Mandy. She was offering to sell me her beautiful Kenner. Apparently she had been thinking about it for a while and she had decided she wanted to offer her Kenner to me, first. And the wonderful thing was that she was within my little  budget.

I quickly replied with a resounding YES and a week later we made the little trip to Mandy's home to collect my dream girl. She is what is known as a Whispy Bang Raven haired Kenner. I was pinching myself for days after bringing her home, I just couldn't believe that my dream had come true.

Here is my Kenner (on the left) at Mandy's, just before we brought her home.

People might ask, what is so special about a Kenner? Well for me there are several reasons and the main one is that they are the same age as me, they have survived these 39 years as a toy and many are falling apart and just waiting for someone to love them. The story of my Kenner is that she was purchased from an elderly lady as a head only, and was restored by a very talented Kenner restorer and given a new body. They also have the most gentle and sweet faces and each of them have a different personality. It sounds strange but it is true - just ask anyone who owns a Kenner!

As soon as I brought her home, I dressed her in some of my Blythe clothes and had a little photo shoot. For me I can combine three of my loves, stitching, photography and collecting - so I was and still are a VERY happy girl. Here are some of my favourite photos of my Kenner girl from our first afternoon together.

As you know, over the last few weeks I have been extremely busy with a few major stitching projects. I have to say that having my Kenner girl really did help. She was my reward each day, as the afternoon arrived, I would take a few minutes away from my machine, dress my girl in a new outfit and take some photos of her. Here are some favourites from those few weeks.

You can see more photos of my Kenner on my flickr stream - here.

So as you can see, I have been having lots of fun with my very special Kenner girl. I love that she is the same age as me and that she has survived all of these years too. I also love the sound she makes when you change her eyes - it is very different to the sound made by the newer dolls too.

Those who follow me on facebook and twitter will know that it did take me a few days to find the perfect name for her. After much thinking and some prompting from friends, I decided to call her Nellie-Mae. Nellie after me (because my dolly friends think she is a mini me of me) and Mae after my Mum as that is her middle name. I think it really suits her.

I feel so blessed to have fulfilled one of my dreams and do hope that one day I can add another Kenner to my Blythe family too. Maybe a red haired one this time. It's fun to have dreams and work towards goals. And fulfilling dreams is even better!!

If you do happen to see one of these gorgeous old dollies in your op shopping travels or have one in your cupboard from 1972, no matter her condition and if you aren't a collector, please keep me in mind. There is always room in my heart for another Kenner girl. xx Janelle

Thank you xx

I just wanted to say a HUGE big thank you to everyone who supported me and shopped at my etsy store on Sunday night. I was SO overwhelmed and delighted to see my blythe clothes selling so very quickly. My store has already sold out and I am going to be working towards and HUGE update at the beginning of November, just in time for Christmas. There will be a few repeats from this last update (for those who missed out) as well as lots of new goodies too. There might even be some super cute Christmas outfits as well...

So keep an eye out here on my blog for some sneak peeks along the way as well as another Lookbook by Emily and I just before the update...

Thank you all once again. xx Janelle

P.S. If you have purchased some of my Blythe clothes, I would LOVE to see some photos of your dolls wearing them. I can then share them here on my blog with everyone. What fun!!

The Stitched Bluebird Etsy Update Time

Just wanted to let you know, The Stitched Bluebird etsy update will be going live at 7:00pm Australian Eastern Standard Time TONIGHT (Sunday night Sept 18). Hope to see you there...       xx Janelle

Etsy update preview...

I have been VERY busily stitching another batch of Blythe outfits for my etsy store and am very excited to share a wonderful preview with you today. My daughter Emily has been VERY busy and has made a super cute Lookbook that showcases all of the outfits being worn by some of our dollies. I really hope you enjoy this preview of all that I have made...

The Stitched Bluebird Spring Lookbook {2011} from Emily Wind on Vimeo.

For those who have been waiting very patiently for me to update my store, I am VERY happy to tell you that I will be updating my store tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon. YAY!! I am really excited about the outfits I have made and hope you will be too. I have only made multiples of 2 and 3 of each of the outfits and wont be able to take any custom orders (sorry), so if there is something you are really wanting, I suggest you pop on over to my etsy store tomorrow afternoon... I hope you love our Lookbook... xx Janelle

 

We have added to our family...

Our Blythe family that is.

As you know, we are a family of Blythe collectors so to add another girl to our family is a BIG deal. Here is a little background story of the addition of two girls to our Blythe family...

Leading up to Emily's 13th birthday I was thinking and thinking of something super special that I could give her as a very special present to celebrate becomming a teenager. I was very excited when the perfect idea came to me. I had a thought that Emily would be beyond excited if she could own a Blythe doll from a very special person who Emily not only admires but has modelled herself on for years - Elsie Larson.

After getting the courage together I contacted Elsie and asked her if she would ever consider selling any of her Blythe dolls to me, as a special gift for Emily. Elsie has chatted a little with Emily over the years and knows who she is, so I was beyond delighted when Elsie sent me a lovely message and a list of a few of her special dolls she would be willing to sell to us for Emily.

I excitedly looked through her list and had pretty much decided on one doll, but there was a second one that had no pictures, so before I made my final choice, I asked Elsie if she could send me a photo of the other doll. This is the photo that Elsie sent to me.

The doll on the right was the one I was thinking would be perfect for Emily but I have to confess that the doll on the left stole my heart. I couldn't stop thinking about her, so decided to spoil myself too and buy both girls. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was. It was super hard to keep the secret too, so each time Emily wasn't around, I snuck a look at the above photo. I quickly messaged Elsie and set our surprise in motion.

The dolls didn't arrive in time for Emily's birthday, so I had to keep the surprise just a little longer. I must say that it was totally worth it. Here are some photos of the day the box arrived. You can also read all about it from Emily's point of view on her blog - here.

As you can see from the above photos, my surprise was a success - phew. Emily was beyond excited that she could own a very special Blythe doll that had once belonged to Elsie. For those who are interested, Emily's blythe is a Matryoshka Maiden with a Miss Sally Rice scalp and she has been customised too, so has been sand matted (so not be shiny anymore) and has had customised lips too. We think she is gorgeous!! AND Emily has named her new girl Elsie - how cute.

After taking in the surprise and having a really big look at our new girls, we headed outside and took a few photos of them.

Both dolls came with two pull strings as well, which gives them sleepy eyes. It is so lovely to have dolls that can now close their eyes too.

I have to confess that I am totally smitten with my girl too - she is so photogenic and just a lovely addition to my blythe family. She is a customised Prima Dolly Saffy with a Nostaligic Pop scalp with a fringe (bangs) cut. She has the most beautiful lips too - she has won me over to customised girls - the simple ones anyway. At the suggestion of my friend Emma, I am thinking I will call her Raven. Here are a few photos I have taken of her lately.

And she is a lovely sister for my Saffy (August) that the kids gave me for my birthday,

Can you believe these are the same doll? It is amazing how different they look once customised and with different hair.

So there you have the story of our two new Blythes. I want to say a HUGE thank you to Elsie for being so gorgeous and allowing us to adopt these two beautiful girls. We just love them both and they have settled in beautifully too. I feel very happy with the Blythe family that we currently have and don't have any plans to add any more (for now!)

I am busily stitching some new clothes and accessories for my etsy store, so for those who have been patiently waiting, I will be updating soon. Keep an eye on my facebook page for updates and sneak peek photos too. For those with iphones, I am using an app called Instagram to take a lot of my photos and will be sharing lots of pics there too. Feel free to follow me on Instagram as well.

Ok back to the sewing machine for me. I hope you have a happy week xx Janelle 

Stitching at the Water's Edge - Part One...

This past weekend I was super excited to once again head to Nowra in NSW to teach at the 'Stitching at the Water's Edge' retreat for the lovely Kim of Jukejema Quilting Barn. I had the most wonderful time teaching alongside my lovely friends Natalie Ross and Anni Downs. I thought I might share my weekend with you too. Here goes...

Friday morning saw me up bright and early and heading down to Thelma's house (Natalie Ross) for another one of our Thelma and Louise road trips. We traveled together to teach at Nowra with Anni in 2009 so were very excited to head back together and see old and new friends alike.

We transfered all of my belongings into Natalie's car and headed on our way down the highway, arriving at the retreat at about 4pm in the afternoon. Natalie did a wonderful job of driving us through the city traffic - something I was happy to let her do, I am not a fan of city driving, call me a country gal for sure.

Upon arrival, we headed into the classroom to take a look around and see all that had been set up by Kim and her wonderful team of helpers. The room looked AMAZING!

Here are Kim and Carol (Kim on the right) - these two beautiful girls worked tirelessly all weekend, making sure everyone felt spoiled and loved too.

(photo courtesy Anni Downs)

Each attendee had a gift bag and special pink gift box at their spot on one of the round tables. The gift bags looked SO very gorgeous decorated with a handmade owl using Natalie's pattern too.

I found out later that inside EACH of these pink boxes was a handmade phone pouch, either my design or Anni's design - and each handmade by Kim's beautiful Mum. I can't believe she made over 60 phone pouches - amazing! This was just the beginning of the spoiling.

Here is one of the phone pouches that she made...

And here I am with Mum - Kim's Mum that is, although I called her Mum all weekend, she just made me feel so at home and welcome. I hope she didn't mind too much.

Kim and Carol had set a shop up at the front of the room and let me tell you, we were all drawn like magnets to the gorgeous books, patterns and fabrics that were for sale - all weekend!

I was very proud and excited to see my book in Kim's shop set up too...

After all of our oohing and ahhing over how beautiful everything in the room looked, it was time to set up our samples. This is always a fun part, working out just how we would display everything. Here is how my display looked...

I had to bring some of my 'girls' with me on my weekend away too, so chose Fawn and Bluebird to join us. The ladies didn't mind my girl coming along for the ride too.

Just before the ladies started arriving I popped outside and was greeted with the most BEAUTIFUL full rainbow. It was hard to capture it on my camera as it's beauty was brighter than you can see here, however here is the rainbow. What a beautiful way to start a very special weekend.

It wasn't long until the lovely ladies started arriving, all excitedly ready for the weekend to begin. After sharing dinner together, we headed into the classroom for introductions and a meet and greet.

Here are all of the projects that were designed especially for this retreat, by Natalie, Anni and myself. 

Natalie designed a gorgeous retreat seat with pockets on the side to hold your retreat goodies, as well as a matching block keeper. Anni designed a pair of gorgeous bags made from wool felt as well as some little Christmas cones and matching table topper. And my project was a pair of bags called 'Cherry Lane' featuring zig zag piecing and both embellished with a gorgeous fabric flower.

Here are some close up's of my projects - Cherry Lane...

The Cherry Lane bag -

The Cherry Lane wristy -

And a close up of the fabric flower -

The ladies were thrilled with all we had to share and were super keen to dive straight into stitching, so Friday night was full of excitement and lots of stitching. The stitching, chatting, and nibbling on choccies went on into the wee hours of the morning. We teachers headed off to bed around midnight, so we were ready for our big day of teaching...

I will leave part one here, on Friday evening. Pop back tomorrow to see my 'What I wore Wednesday' post as well as part two of 'Stitching at the Waters Edge' retreat too. x Janelle

My clever friend...

A few weeks ago this gorgeous parcel arrived in the mail for me. Isn't it just beautiful!!

This is what was inside. A gorgeous pile of knitted goodness for my Blythe dolls.

All of this beautiful knitted goodness was from my lovely friend Sheree Forcier. To say I felt spoiled was an understatement. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face!

It didn't take me long at all to grab my girls for a little try on of these gorgeous clothes. It was a rainy dark day but I managed to snap a few shots.

Bluebird just adores this gorgeous yellow top with matching headband.

Here is Kitty wearing the most gorgeous little green cardigan and matching berret.

Here is a shot of the girls all wearing Sheree's knittied goodness. I just ADORE everything and am so grateful to Sheree for being so generous with me, thank you Sheree. xx

My new girl August wanted to try on some of the knitted goodies when she arrived too, so she had a lovely time wearing the knitted cardigan and berret as well.

A HUGE thank you to Sheree for being SO very generous and kind, I adore everything she spoiled me with. If you would like to see some more of Sheree's clever knitted Blythe goodies, take a look HERE and to see more of Sheree's cleverness too, take a look HERE. She is currently stitching the most stunning version of my 'Orange Blossom' runner too. I can't WAIT to see it... xx Janelle

Last Monday...

was a special day for our little family. It was mine and my husbands birthdays. That's right, we share the same day for our birthday, but not the same year. It is often a little hard for the kids having to spoil Mum and Dad on the same day but this year we did things a little differently.

This year we shopped as a family for hubby and the kids shopped online for me - I gave them a budget and paid for what they chose without asking too many questions. It saved lots of Daddy stressing too might add!

We woke bright and early on the morning of our birthday to 2 excited kiddies. They were SO very excited about the present they had chosen for me. Emily had worked very hard and thanks to the help of some lovely ladies she chose and purchased a new blythe doll for me. Here she is, isn't she pretty...

For those interested in Blythe dolls, she is a Prima Dolly Saffy and was adopted from a lovely collector in Victoria (I love adopting second hand girls). After much thought, we decided to call her August. I think it is perfect since that is when she was given to me and it suits her too. I am so proud of my kids for being so thoughtful and thinking of me. I adore my new girl too. Now my little blythe family has grown to four.

I was also spoiled with some other lovely gifts from family and friends. The lovely Hailey (Mum to my favourite artist Zali) sent this beautifully packaged gift to me when the family recently visited us.

Inside was the most beautiful card and brooch, handmade in Peru. I just LOVE it and have worn it many times since my birthday too. HUGE thank you's to Hailey and her family for spoiling me.

I spent the rest of my birthday at home on my own working and thoroughly enjoying reading all of the birthday messages that came through facebook and twitter throughout the day. Those messages were a real highlight to me, it was so lovely to be thought of by so many friendson my special day.

We ended our birthday by enjoying a lovely baked dinner and a roast that I cooked especially for hubby as it is his favourite.

The next day I made myself a cake and the kids enjoyed singing happy birthday to me - it is fun to stretch birthday's just that little  bit longer don't you think.

Thanks for letting me share my day with you. It was my last birthday before a BIG one, so I am hoping this last year of my 30's goes VERY slowly... xx Janelle

Edited to Add: I forgot to share a photo of one VERY important gift that was  made for me. For about 3 days leading up to my birthday, Emily set up her sewing machine in her room and wouldn't let me in to see what she was working on.

On my birthday she proudly presented me with a little dolly quilt that she made for me, all by herself. I am bursting with pride that she would spend her spare time making this for me and I just LOVE it. Thank you Emily for spoiling me xx

Introducing one of my favourite young artists...

A few months ago I had this idea?

After seeing some gorgeous artwork by a super talented young artist, I approached her and asked if we could do a trade. She is an avid Blythe collector, and I really wanted to encourage her art and have a piece of her creativity in my home, so I asked her to paint me a canvas and I would buy her a Blythe doll in return.

Luckily for me, she jumped at the chance and got busy painting for me, and I organised a special Blythe doll for her.

Who is this young artist you might ask?

Well let me proudly tell you that she is none other than Emily's special friend Zali Bartholomew. Zali comes from a home that oozes creativity, where the whole family creates the most amazing things. Zali's Mum, Hailey is the most amazing photographer too - and is the instigator of the 365 Grateful project that is sweeping the world too. To say I was thrilled to have a piece of Zali's art in my home, was an understatement - I was super excited!!

Let me introduce you to Zali. She is a super talented 11 year old up and coming artist from QLD, Australia. Here is is pictured with Nellie, the Blythe doll that I gave to her (she named her after me, how lovely).

And here she is holding my gorgeous piece of artwork. It is of one of my most favourite things, a tree and is so very detailed and colourful too, with gold dots all over the whole piece. I just LOVE it and it fits perfectly into our home too.

And here is my canvas hanging in our lounge room. It fits perfectly and I LOVE it so much. Huge thank you's to Zali for painting it for me and to her Dad Andrew for bringing it all the way down here for me when they visited us last week too.

I can't wait to see what else Zali creates as she grows and develops her already amazing talent too. Thank you Zali for sharing your amazing talent with me. xx Janelle