Whats wrong with Kendra?

On my travels through Wonderlandia I find it so brimming with fantastical creatures, places and stories that i often forget about all the amazing "ordinary" people I meet there. Infact, should you ever read through my travel journals - you could be forgiven for thinking that there were no ordinary people residing in Wonderlandia at all!

However, on my last visit one such ordinary Wonderlandian surprised me by becoming one of the most fascinating creatures I have ever met...

This was, of course, the uber-sweet Kendra, the 12 year old daughter of a friend of mine with whom I often visit when my travels take me through the picturesque villiage of Lapis, on Wonderlandia's Velvet coast.

On my last visit, I arrived to find my friend rather worried, for Kendra seemed to have changed suddenly and in place of the happy little daughter she once had, was now what could only be described as an empty shell of a girl. Almost as if Kendra's spirit now resided somewhere else entirely.

She would often wander now, and would be found in the strangest of places, sometimes at the end of the little wharf down the street silently staring out to sea, or sitting out in the rain, completely saturated, watching the puddles gather water.

This behaviour had been going on for months, gradually getting worse as Kendra became more and more withdrawn. After carting her from doctor to specialist to councillor and back again, still there was no difinitive diagnosis and no solution at all. Only a constant question asked by everyone she came across "What's wrong with Kendra?". When I think back to this worrying time it's so hard to believe something truly incredible was about to happen...

I hope you enjoy my portrait of Kendra above, I will have a second portait of Kendra coming shortly, in the meantime I won't say anymore though, because I don't want to give her secret away - think you can guess what is wrong with Kendra?

Manda xxx

The elephants go marching out!

I am so happy with the response to my mummy and baby elephant denim pinafores, so much so I keep running out of the fabric for the lining, we sell out of them at each market and have had plenty of orders too. So if you have come to visit us and weren't able to find the elephant pinafore in the size you were after make sure you come back soon as I have sourced some really great new great fabrics that I am going to experiment with which I think will be just as cute (if not cuter), so look out for lots of different coloured elephants coming up!

If you have any ideas for cute applique you'd like to see me create on a pinafore I'd love to hear them - so far I've created a few different owls, a giraffe, two types of whales and of course the mummy and baby elephants... Liz

New cord & cotton Easter skirts

Yesterday, after making up some new reversible dresses, I found myself with a big bag full leftover fabric that I couldn't bear to waste. So I set about making a few hair clips - but there was still so much fabric left...

Working around the akwardly shaped offcuts, I came up with an idea for some bright and fun skirts that would be just perfect for Easter. To begin with, I cut the fabric into strips, came up with some fun colour combos and hit the sewing machine running - before I knew it, I was testing out all the embroidery stitches on my machine, sooooo fun!

I shirred the skirts at the top for stretch to allow them to fit for longer and increase comfort (both so important for growing kids) But, still not ready to stop embellishing - I went super frilly with a fourth layer of ribbon!

You can see some of the finished products in the pics above, they are all one offs and will be available in our Etsy shop shortly and also of course at our market stalls - the next market is on at Cronulla Sutherland Leagues Club this weekend (sat 20/03) and then Sunday at Narrabeen Market Berry Reserve.

Hope I did ok for my first blog post - as a Grandmother I am proud to say I'm feeling very "with the times" right now...lol

Liz

My Mum is blogging!

Yes it's true - my uber talented Mum (Liz) who designs and handmakes all Wonderlandia's adorable clothing has decided she wants to blog about her upcoming clothing, successes and failures, inspirations and even some sewing how-to's!

So keep a look out for her posts - the first of which is coming right after this one!

Manda

Secrets revealed...

On meeting Gwen I have to admit I was taken aback - I mean she's strange even by Wonderlandian standards, my mind was flooded with questions; is she a girl? a bird? where did she come from? Are there others? Why haven't I seen any of her kind on any of my travels through Wonderlandia before?

But if I was intruiged by the mere sight of Gwen, that's nothing compared to how I felt when I heard her story...

When she was just a young girl of nine Gwendolen was playing hide and seek in Brandysnap forest when she realised she had been separated from her friends and become lost. Gwen scrambled through the darkening forest, stumbling over tree roots and fallen branches - callling out to her friends, unknowingly running deeper into the forest instead of out of it.

Not looking where she was going Gwen slipped down a muddy bank and fell into a small puddle of water. However, this puddle was far deeper than it looked and Gwen found herself submerged right up to her neck. The water was bitterly cold and Gwen launched herself out immediately - however there was no relief to be had, for once out of the water she was suddenly overcome by the strangest senstation she'd ever felt...

Injecting life into Veronica...

So happy - I got my new Wacom drawing tablet on Monday afternoon and it's amazing! The feel of the pen and the drawing surface is sooo much more pleasurable and realistic than my previous model (graphire4). The increased accuracy and additional sensitivity are definitely noticeable and I am really looking forward to working more with this tool!

In my excitement I decided to play around with my drawing of Veronica and I found that I could actually make her look much closer to the Veronica in my memory by using my tablet and alot of dodging, burning, cloning etc... in photoshop.

I am so pleased with Veronica that I've decided to add digital work as a permanent part of my creative process from now on! There is only one negative - all my artwork will now take twice as long, but I really think it's worth it - I have put both versions of Veronica below so you can see the difference - let me know what you think :)

Pencil and Photoshop

Pencil only

Also, in a previous post I mentioned that I would be adding Veronica to my Etsy store on the 1st of March to celebrate the arrival of Autumn - but I actually ended up deciding to hold off until I had the new version instead, so I'll be adding her tomorrow - sorry about that - hope she's worth the wait!

Manda :)