The Bespoke Dragon

Recently I saw a post on FaceBook about a company that will make your child's soft toy based on their drawings.  I showed this to my youngest who has a birthday coming up.  He was impressed. So I set myself the task of doing it myself for Master 7's birthday in June.  This is what happened:

I Asked Master 7 to design a toy that he would like me to make.  These are his drawings.

Not having much experience making soft toys I used Master 10's much loved toy lizard as a base for construction. I also chose some fabrics that were already in my collection due to budget limitations.

I made a pattern... using every bit of educated guesswork I possessed.

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From my basic sewing knowledge I knew it was important to leave a seam allowance and to snip the fabric on the curve.

The major body parts... will they go together?!

The spikes for the spine seemed the easiest to make first. Happy with them I got my first sense that I could do this!


So after two days of construction and nervous sewing the dragon came together!

The Austrian Cross Stitch Project Complete!

Part of my preparations for my trip to Austria was choosing a cross stitch project to do in the anticipated "down time" and to serve as a momento.   The original pattern for the above project didn't include the boarder or the birdhouse, key, masks, armoury, apple, peacock or squirrel... they came later... and were largely designed by me to fit the space they occupy.  They all have a meaning, of course.

Sitting cross-legged on my daughters apartment floor trying to work out how to complete the squirrel.  On my lap is a needle wallet I made a few years ago which I managed to get through security and onto planes :) More about that later.

 Washing in the cat litter tray that was never used for cat litter ;)

 

I originally saw this design for a needle wallet online... printed it out in colour... and, well, copied it. Fortunately my name also starts with the letter "L".

 And the pink Swarovsky crystal was mined and cut in Austria :)

Souvenirs and The Story Behind Them

Not having much money for this trip didn't prevent me from bringing home some treasured items... some, like the above book, was given to me by Alex when I found it amongst his family collection.  Now I just need to find the English version here at home so I can get to work with practicing my German!

One of the best given items was a USB stick containing all of the photos we took during my stay. I believe there were over a thousand but I could be mistaken.

Alex also gave me this little notebook which I have put to good use by using it to keep record of the clothes etc that I have left in a wardrobe in Austria.  Hopefully I will return next European winter and now won't need to pack as much.  I always knew there was a reason why I owned so many pieces of clothing: I clearly needed to collect enough for life in two hemispheres! ;)

Conveniently Alex has a casual job at a gift store where I chose a few items and received a discount :)  The door tag below says "Do Not Enter" I bought about four of these in different colours for the kids and cousins... the kind of thing a kid tends to appreciate for their bedroom door ;) Great value at about 1 Euro each!

 Below is a metal hand painted cowbell :)  So quintessentially Central European.  It was sold with a daggy piece of string... I replaced that with a white ribbon and a heart button taken from a bag of buttons also bought at the gift store.  These were about 2 Euro each.

We really needed a lighter for candles in Alex's apartment so I also chose this (below) for less than a Euro after discount.

This is a card game (below) designed to assist with the learning of German... hopefully the boys will play with me.  Alex and I had several games and in the end I was able to identify all 52 nouns... now I just need an opportunity to say such words as "draw bridge", "crystal ball", and "Witching Hour" in German ;)

These carefully selected "Made In Europe" hand carved / painted wooden animals (below) were the most expensive souvenir and bought for the boys in the hope that I will never see similar for sale in an Australian toy store!  My 7yo has already created and performed a story entitled "The Unusual Friends" which he allowed me to video.  I have to say the fox is my favourite.

For myself I bought a souvenir from a little store in the centre of Graz that sells Reiss enamelware: a family owned Austrian company that has been manufacuring for over 200 years. I bought a small jug with a long handle in which to make hot chocolates and sauces etc. If I like it I can buy more online... but it was much cheaper (even after the currency exchange rate) in the store than doing that from Australia.  It's currently still in storage but very similar to those picture below.

Now THESE are the souvenirs (below) I wish I had the money to buy! Traditional Austrian outfits.

I can really see Master 7 wearing this!

But having a very tiny budget I also brought home some of the local free newspapers from Graz.

And a ring I found squashed on the first floor steps at Alex's Graz apartment... I managed to 'repair' it and it feels surprisingly comfortable even though I am usually not a ring person. The three stones remind me of my three children: Pink for Teen Daughter, green for Master 10 (his favourite colour) and blue for Master 7 (his favourite colour).

Post Adventure Disorientation and Memories of the Joannes Universalmuseum (Graz, Austria)

I've been back in Australia for nearly two weeks now and am still experiencing the anticipated disorientation…  so completing my blog and reliving some of the treasured memories has lots of appeal right now.

While I was in Graz Alex took me to the Joannes Universalmuseum which consists of six locations including the recently restored museum of Natural History, Science and Modern Art, the Schloss Eggenburg with its lovely gardens and Roman museum and Classical Artworks museum.  Fortunately our tickets were valid over 2 days so we were able to have a fairly thorough look around.  I won't show every photo we took here but here is a selection:

The Volksmuseum (Folks/Public museum) was very hands on and great for kids.

Seems like they had a model sample of every mushroom and fungi in the world.  Each was labelled edible, poisonous or edible but unappetising. There was an interactive test at the end to see if you could recall which was which… very tricky… I didn't do too well indicating I will probably die if I ever need to survive on gathered mushrooms.

See… I wouldn't have thought this specimen was edible.

There were fossilised creatures from the past...

…and rows and rows of cabinets of rock samples of the world including gold from Ballarat.

Bugs, beetles and butterflies from all over the world as well.

Animals both in taxidermy and skeletal form.  These photos of the wolf are for my 7yo son who likes them especially.

The pheasant was a bird I saw quite frequently at Alex's family home in the country (Waldschach).

And I saw countless squirrels during my stay… in lots of shades of brown and red.  Love the ear tufts.

The gates of the Schloss Eggenberg

  Alex and I watched with fascination how the white female peacock played 'hard to get' :)

And the next day we returned to the "Vanity Box" ahem, Mirror box, and took our first photo of "us" together.