Mummy Jo

You say goodbye, and I say hello ....

2006-11-10T22:47:00.000+11:00

Is there an ad on TV at the moment with that song? It's in my head and it seemed appropriate.

Well, I've thought it through and I think I have it clear in my head now. If that is ever possible.

Less me, less kids, less family life. More sewing, crafting and general associated disasters.

Good bye Mummy Jo. It's been fun.

Hello to The Complete Adventures of Violet & Rose ...

I'll see you there!

Remember Me ???

2006-10-16T23:26:00.000+10:00

Well, time is marching on. Violet & Rose is becoming a reality. I am sewing like a mad woman in every spare second of every day. The wonderful thing about this is that it is still a joy, never a chore.

I am trying to create stock to sell at the two Christmas markets I am participating in. In amongst this, I was roped in to make some items for Beth's school fete. Apparently they were desperate. I don't mind doing this, it's just the timing. Which is bad!

So, even though there is nothing to show, except for some wonderful artwork created by a very, very generous friend, come on over and visit "Violet & Rose". You'll get the gist of it.

In trying to guess how much to make for the markets, I am either going to fall very short of very excessive of what I need. I'm hoping for very short, but if it's very excessive, you'll find it all on the site around December 2.

I'd love you to subscribe to Violet & Rose so you can tabs on my exploits!

Cheers!

What am I doing?

2006-09-08T15:59:00.000+10:00

Two weeks since my last post! Hmm, something must be going on here. And it is. I'm just not quite sure what. Are you following? Good. Keep up.

I was going to write a more detailed post today, but in this modern day of having no shame, I feel obliged to tell you that Beth came home from school with HEAD LICE! Oh my god! I am the eldest of four girls and my mother's epitaph will read "None of my girl's ever had head lice". So it took me a while (and a consultation with "dishcloth purse" friend) to confirm my suspicion. Last night and today have consisted of steady streams of de-lousing treatments, washing, more treatments (we have all been "done", but only Beth seems to have any, and only eggs. My mother felt better when I told her this), hanging washing on the line, taking washing off the line, changing beds, re-making beds. You get my drift.

So that's today's excuse.

I am re-thinking my direction and my options. I have decided to call the "business" "Violet & Rose". I have booked myself in to do two local school Christmas craft markets. One on the 15th of November, the other on the 1st of December. I even have a notebook where I am keeping track of my costs, writing down all the things I need to make (this makes me a little giddy) and other assorted useful pieces of information. I am feeling very "real" about this little commitment.

And you know, that was one of the reasons I started this blog. To inspire me to get my act together, follow my dream, reach for the stars. OK, it's getting a bit melodramatic. But the blog has been a way for me to test the water, show people what I do, get some feedback. And it's been the best thing I ever did. But the reason I started the blog may be the reason I end it. In this form, anyway.

I am starting to feel a little, well, scared. People I know in the real world are finding my blog, and they have been very complimentary, but they have been "good" people I know. What happens when the "bad" people I know find it? And the chances of my two world's colliding once I start promoting "Violet & Rose" are high. Especially when I will be promoting it within my local community. Do I want my children's teacher's to read my blog? Do I want my children's friends mothers to read my blog? Is this fair to the girls? Will people take this information about my family and run with it and use it in a way that I never meant for it to be used? Hmmm...

Also, having a fortnight's break has shown me how much more time I would have and how many other things I could be doing besides sitting on my backside on the computer. I really haven't been looking after myself when it comes to exercise and good diet. My life has consisted of sitting in front of the computer with a chocolate bar, cake, piece of slice, all intended for the girl's to eat, of course. But somehow, sitting at the computer goes hand in hand with sweet eating. Lately though, I have been exercising a little more and watching what goes in my mouth a tad more. As most mother's would know, thinking to take care of yourself is not high on our list of priorities, but I have decided that I need to be a little kinder to myself. That, and none of my summer clothes fit me anymore. Nothing like a skirt that no longer does up to spur you on.

So, I hear you say, what is she going to do? Well, I'm keeping my flick-r account, I'm still visiting all my wonderful blogging friends, but I think I am going to wind Mummy-Jo up, and move on to "Violet & Rose", which will have a blog/web site/online shop, but will have less about me and my girl's and have less frequent posts. I feel a bit sad saying that, because another reason I started blogging was as a way to document our lives, but perhaps the internet is not the best place to be doing that. There are other way's for me to keep a diary. Hey, perhaps I could keep a diary the old fashioned way!

Anyway, this is not the end, it's only the beginning. And I will post again and let you know about what the absolute final decision is and where you will be able to find me.

But can I just say "thank you"? To you. Sitting at your computer in the next suburb or on the other side of the world. If the world was made up of lovely mummy crafting bloggers, what a better, lovely and far more stylish and pretty world we would have.

Take care my friends, will "talk" again soon.

TACK Challenge ...

2006-08-25T13:10:00.000+10:00

What started out as a bit of fun, rapidly developed into one giant pain in the butt for me. It was like a mill stone around my neck. I had better things to do than sew something with bad quality, tasteless fabric.

Hang on, maybe I could really challenge myself and try and make something that was vaguely attractive? Hmmm, no, that was never going to work.

Perhaps I could make something hilariously funny, like my fellow TACK challengees, Nicole and Alison . No, I had no time for humour.

So this morning I sat down and made this. No fan fare. Just here it is. And I've kept my end of the bargain. A giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders.

Now, back to sewing something that I may actually enjoy.

The grown-up's version ...

2006-08-24T13:13:00.000+10:00

I've always had a thing for stationery. I was the kind of child who would just sit and go through my school bag the week before we went back to school. I would fondle and caress and smell the new books and love the newness of my pencils. I loved covering my books and sticking on the book labels from the "Woman's Weekly". And first week back at school, my favourite thing for the year was to make the cover page on the front page of my exercise books. I think that is why I loved making the pencil rolls so much. It was that thing of unrolling the roll and seeing all the pencil's laid out and in order and none missing.

I went into Kikki-K on the weekend. I love all the note books and pens and pencils and other paraphanalia in there. I think this may be what inspired me. What about a pencil roll for grown up's? Stylish, with a compartment for a note pad or diary and then a couple of compartments for pens. Perfect for someone like myself who has pens and note pads and diary floating all around my hand bag. So I made this one. For me! I think I may make some more.

Thank you to everyone for their input on what I should call my little fledgling business. I was purposely vague in my thoughts to see if I could get an unbiased result. Like on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" when the contestant says something like, "Well, I'm thinking it might be A, but I'll ask the audience." Guaranteed, the audience will come back and A will win. Catch my drift?

Anyway, "Pink Milk Designs" has out polled "violet and rose" 57% to 41%.

To answer some questions. Yes, I prefer just plain old pink milk, but when I checked, it is already registered as a business name. And then some very kind people let me know that there is an Etsy shop called pink milk and there is indeed a pink milk website where you can buy "Charlie and Lola" merchandise. And for those who missed the link, yes, I took the name from "Charlie and Lola".

So, now, my dilemma. Has pink milk been milked dry?

I know that my tag line is going to be "Funky Old Fashioned Favourites". The idea behind the things I make is that they are a new take on old ideas. I toyed with the idea of just calling it FOFF. But no.

Maybe I'll go against the grain and use "violet and rose". I like this because it can be interpreted in so many ways. Flowers, colours, names. Not quite so restrictive.

Decisions, decisions.

I'm off to do some sewing now. If you're wondering what, check here or here and stay tuned.

The weekend and other assorted goodies ...

2006-08-21T13:39:00.000+10:00

Hmmm, where to begin, where to begin? We had a lovely weekend staying in the centre of Melbourne at The Westin. If you are ever looking to spoil yourself in Melbourne, The Westin is the place! Almost felt a little European, with our beautiful hotel room with little balcony that opened up to a view of this. This is the spire of St. Paul's Cathedral. It has recently had a lot of restoration work carried out on it and only last week did all the scaffolding come down. I believe they timed it especially for our visit. Well, maybe not. But I'm glad we got to look at this and not scaffolding. Now this photo below was also taken from our balcony window. It is of the Nicholas Building on Swanston Street. The significance being that it is home to BUTTONMANIA. See how close we were? How could we not visit?
Hamish came along with me, which quite frankly, stunned me. And even more astonishingly, he actually enjoyed it. He helped me to go through the boxes and find these buttons. I got a couple of each. They are going to go on another lot of the little girl's bracelets that I am going to make. Kate, the lady who owns "Buttonmania" was lovely and chatty and was telling us about the hundred year old button presses that she uses to make covered buttons. She told Hamish to go out and have a look at them, which he did. Boys and machines. Even button machines! Then it was off to Clegg's for some trim shopping. His eyes did start to glaze over a bit by then. So we just strolled the arcades and lanes, bought presents for the girl's at Haigh's chocolates, Suga and Jasper Junior, which is a fantastic toy shop. We had dinner at Feddish, which was good. Not all time memorable great, but still good. Strolled back to the hotel for my double Bailey's. Next day, more food, more shopping. Worth ten year's of marriage, I tell you.

Speaking of the good life, I have received some lovely mail in the past few days. Last week, I did a swap with Suse and received one of her lovely hand knitted face washer's. It is so soft and gorgeous. Thanks Suse.
And then, just because I told Lesley a really bad joke, I won a set of her beautiful note cards. And I can't wait to use them. Thank you Lesley. As if by some kind of madness, she must have known the current obsession shared by girls old and young in our house for glitter gel pens, and she popped one in with the cards. It is a cherry red colour, which we don't have. I'm off to hide it away before small six year old girl comes home from school and find's it and claims it for her own. Bye.

What were you doing ten years ago today?

2006-08-17T09:50:00.000+10:00

I was getting married.

Ten years. Best ten years of my life. Which doesn't necessarily mean the best "bed of roses" years of my life, but often, the things that you have to work hardest at are the things you appreciate the most.

One husband, two children, many kilo's and grey hairs later, I wouldn't have it any other way.

We are celebrating this weekend, staying in the city at The Westin and just eating, shopping, strolling, hanging out. Just like we used to.

I'm a little bit excited.

Tipping the scales ...

2006-08-14T14:41:00.000+10:00

I'm a Libran. Balance is very important to me.

At the moment, things are a little unbalanced around here.

So many things I want to do. So many things I need to do. Oh my gosh, is that the time already? You get the drift.

Therefore, my posts are not as frequent as I would like them to be as I search for that elusive equilibrium in my life. And also, as I like to post mainly about what I have made, I really haven't been making anything new of late. More pencil rolls and tissue holders, but how many of those can you see before you would be seriously bored with me?

So today, I will post about two things.

Two. See? Nice and even.

Firstly, I want to start my own business, selling all the little things I make. Scroll back, check my flick-r, you'll get the gist. My first venture is going to be a stall at Beth's school market night on December 1. That's achievable for me. I have a lot of stock to make. But I need a name! I saw this little poll gizmo on Nic's site last week and I was quite taken with it, so I have blatantly stolen the idea. (Still waiting to hear what you had for dinner, Nic?) Help me. Please vote. Or if you think both names are shocking, leave me a helpful, but nice, comment.

Secondly, just to let everyone know there are still lovely, kind people out there in the world. In one of my first ever posts, I mentioned a lovely lady by the name of Chitra who has a gorgeous shop in Brunswick, in Melbourne, called Chitra's Closet. Somehow, out in blogland, she found my post and e-mailed me. She asked if I would like her fabric off-cuts? I said no thank you, that I really wasn't interested in her gorgeous fabric that she was just going to give me out of the kindness of her heart. I'm joking! I jumped at it.

So off I went with Beth for the afternoon and we picked up a bag with some fantastic fabric and some rather lovely lace and trims. Chitra is moving to a bigger showroom soon and is going to have an area devoted to crafts where she can encourage woman to find the time to sit and "craft". When I hear more, I will let you know.

Thank you Chitra. And for those of you in Melbourne, if you are looking to expand your wardrobe, especially if you are after something special, it's well worth a visit. Details on the web site.

And in the interests of balancing out my day, that's all folks. That, and I've got school pick-up to do.

When good sewing turns bad...

2006-08-07T11:19:00.000+10:00

You know when you see something and you think, "Hey, that looks great!" And then comes the famous line, "I COULD MAKE ONE OF THOSE MYSELF".

And that is what I thought when I had seen a few different pencil rolls posted in peoples blogs. Especially the one that Pink Chalk Studio made. I fell in love. All those colours. If I was a little person, I would love to be taking out and putting back my pencils into something so organized, yet so pretty. Or if I was a boy, so cool.

So it was decided. Beth loves to draw. Always has and I hope, always will. What a perfect birthday gift for her. But I will make my pencil roll very functional. It will have an oilcloth outer, so as it is easy to keep clean and durable. And that, dear friends, was my first fatal mistake.

I am a compulsive iron-as-you-sew person. Each time I do a seam, an important one, I have to iron it. And why tack or use pins to hold things in place when you can just iron them? Ironing has magical holding properties. So, when I was putting together the front panel to the back oilcloth panel, I thought it couldn't hurt just to press this in place so the edges sit flat? The iron was on low, there was no where the iron could directly touch the oilcloth. Wrong. Those little pieces around the edges, just overlapping a little. One touch of the iron and hey presto! You have holes in your pencil roll. When I did this, the really sad thing was that I thought to myself, "no, this is OK, I can fix this". But then reality set in and I knew that holes in oilcloth are really not fixable. End of pencil roll number one.

The pencil roll is quilted. Here is a question for anyone who has ever machine quilted a quilt. Could you imagine trying to sew a quilt with a plastic back? No, I didn't think so. SO WHAT ON EARTH WAS I THINKING? Pencil roll number two was then thrown with a good deal of force into the rubbish bin. I should have kept it to show you, because it is really amazing how un-square you can get a piece of fabric quilted to a piece of plastic. Oilcloth doesn't have much give when it comes to being manipulated around a machine.

So, onwards and upwards to pencil roll number three. No more oilcloth. Just all cotton with cotton quilt batting used inside. So that means that when the bottom pocket is folded up, I was sewing through 4 pieces of cotton and 2 pieces of quilt batting. Can you see where this is headed? The walking foot and the size 16 needle did a valiant job, and pencil roll number three was actually completed. But with a lovely wave in the middle. Not sure how this happened. I guess a combination of extra bulk and very tight tensioning. But I finished it. Because it was taunting me. "Come on! I dare you to stick with this. You think you can sew this easy-peasy pencil roll, but really, you can't". I could hear it saying to me. Or was that just me being delirious because now it was really, really late at night.

So pencil roll number three is finished when it started. Can I really give this to somebody? Even though it is only my own daughter? I don't mean "only" my own daughter, but what I mean is that can I give it even though it may never leave the house? I wasn't one bit happy with it. I kept unrolling it and looking. Did I have any pride at all? So, I did what you do when you reach rock bottom. You ask your husband. "Hamish, do you think this looks OK?" Quick glance from Hamish. "Um, yeah, is it supposed to have that wave thing in the middle?".

So pencil roll number four was born.

This time I went back and I did something I don't normally do. I read the instructions. Oh, you use flannel as the inner. Not quilt batting. Oh.

And something else I did that I have never done before. I pinned it before I sewed all those little pencil pockets. And do you know what? It held like a charm. Much better than the magical iron.

And since successful version number 4, I have also made successful versions number 5 and 6. Both for boys. As thank you's for the Mum's of the boys who let me go through their fabric scraps and steal some to make the backing strips for the pencils. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of number 5, but here is number 6. Quite GI Joe and man-ly I thought.

So now my grand thoughts (or should that be grandiose dreams?) turn back to my pie in the sky shop, where I am going to make these rolls for packs of 10-12 pencils, not 24. More economical. And 10-12 is a good size for littlies who are just starting to draw. Alice was loving colouring with Beth's pencil's on the weekend and was surprisingly good at putting the pencils back where they came from.

Moral of the story:

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try, swear, stay up really, really late, cry and then try again."

I enjoyed reading Alison's post today about unsuccessful sewing and I hope that this contributes to that general discussion. Perhaps for some people looking from the outside in, when all you see are pretty pictures about something that someone has just whipped up, it can appear to be fairly unreal. Please rest assured, there are no such fantasies being lived out at Mummy Jo's.

And how could I end today's post without showing you a shot of the glorious late Winter sunshine we are having here in Melbourne today. It will be freezing cold and raining again soon, but here, breathe it in and enjoy.

What's a girl to do?

2006-08-02T13:31:00.000+10:00

First of all, before I forget, a big thank you to everyone for your kind comments on my last post. I would like to think that I could reply personally, but sometimes, something's gotta give, and I'm a little ashamed to say the first of those things is personal thank-you's. But thank-you all. Appreciated.

I posted this picture and some in more detail in Flick-r a while back, but didn't want to post about them until they had reached their intended destination.

I made these two tops for Julie's little girls as part of our recent swap. They have now arrived in Israel, so in accordance with blogging protocol, I can now post a picture and blab.

I was really pleased with how these turned out. I wanted to make something that was sweet and girly, but not sickly and pink. And made with fabric that reminded me of my childhood or happy things. With lots of ric-rac and ribbon and gorgeous trims. I have made so many skirts this year, and thought that I could make these based on the idea of the bottom being like a tier of a gathered skirt. Then I pulled out all the girls tops and dresses right from when they were babies and dissected how they were all made. Took the best (and easiest) parts and voila! They do up at the back with two buttons and the skirt is open. I like the idea of wearing them with cut-off jeans or long shorts.

If you are wondering why I take all my pictures of clothes hanging on the washing line, there are several reasons. Firstly, it's a natural light thing. And it was just too cold to have my girls wear them outside. I may be harsh, but I'm not cruel. Secondly, the washing line stays relatively still and does what I want it to do.

I showed my sewing to a few of my friends who all gave me great feedback. Except for my very dear friend (no, really, she is) - she of the "dishcloth purse" fame. She said that she loved them, but could I make one for her daughter in pink. I'm not anti-pink, I guess I just really need to find the right "pink".

So, now, to my next dilemma. One which it seems that a few of us are going through. To sell, or not to sell? How much? Etsy? A market? A web site? Good old fashioned word of mouth. Do you want to buy one? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

A few more of the goodies sent over to Julie.

And speaking of "to sell", met up yesterday with my first blogging, in-the-flesh friend. Alice and I met Justine and Molly and it was like we'd known each other for year's! Justine is every bit as lovely and funny as you would imagine from reading her blog. We met up to discuss some ideas about our respective crafting "stuff", but our girls had other idea's. Both were tired. Lovely, but tired. We had about three minutes of peace when Alice decided to lie down on a big kind of couchy, chair thing, with pristine cream cushions on it, that was displayed outside a Villa and Hut store. Molly played peek-a-boo with her and Justine and I pretended they weren't ours. Until the man from the shop tracked us down and asked me to remove my child from his $999 chair so as he had half a chance of selling it. I suggested to him that perhaps at that price, he could sell Alice with the chair as well. He didn't get it. He mustn't have kids.

The funniest part of this was that as we were sitting, sipping our hot chocolates, a friend (more a friend of a friend I guess) of mine came over. As I went to say "Hi", she went straight over me and reached over to Justine! Turns out that she takes her little girl to the same place for music as Justine takes Molly. How freaky is that! To have this blogging connection and then discover we know mutual people in the "real world". Blew me away really.

So a big hello to Justine and Molly and Alice promises she will not be bossy next time. Or else her mother really will sell her with the chair.

The lowdown ...

2006-07-31T16:24:00.000+10:00

So where did last week go? Let's see.
There were the mini cupcakes to take to school. Spiders and butterflies. Amazing what you can do with a couple of Smarties and some shredded coconut!
There were the bracelets. 13 in total. 6 buttons per bracelet. I was sewing buttons in my sleep.Then there were the goodie bags with little tags that Beth signed. Here are all the bags, including the ones for the boys with marbles inside. And of course, every party girl needs a new appliqued top. This large square of gingham is hiding a major applique disaster. But nobody knows that, right? I am saving that story for another post. Along with the story of the pencil roll. Beth received pencil roll attempt number 4. Version numbers 1,2 and 3 went in the rubbish. The gorgeous boy with the cheesy smile is Beth's cousin, Dylan.Here is the hotel's birthday cake, where we had Beth's party. I nearly passed out when I saw all those lollies. Sugar, sugar and more sugar. Just what all the kids needed.On Sunday we had a family party at home. This was the cake I made for Beth. Courtesy of "Donna Hay Magazine" Kids Special from last year. Basically one large and two small tubs of vanilla ice cream. Covered in crushed "Marie" biscuits. Decorated with vanilla and cinnamon madelines and chocolate shells. Mermaids and other decorations courtesy of The Reject Shop.

And why did I do all of this?

No more reason needed.

Happy Birthday Miss 6 Today ...

2006-07-29T14:21:00.000+10:00

My big baby girl is 6 today! Wow! Six!
Here she is with one of her birthday presents. Some action shots of "Swirly Tennis" as she calls it. It's another "Charlie and Lola" thing.
Wishing you much love and happiness on your birthday, my beautiful Beth.
Now, back to sewing those buttons on those bracelets. Two hours till the party. And counting.
Much to tell about the week that was. But I'll leave that for next week.

WIP and Strip...

2006-07-21T00:12:00.000+10:00

I feel a little like Maisy Gibbons on Desperate Housewives with a title like that. Truth be known, that is all that has really been going on around here craft wise lately. Lots of WIP's needing lots of strips of fabric. And I really have to say it has been fun.

The picture above is of the strips I have been cutting to make the goodie bags for the big 6 year old birthday party. Thanks to Amy who was my Mag Swap partner for sending over a copy of MS Kids for the inspiration. They have a picture of some really sweet goodie bags just made up out of fabric scraps. So that is what I am doing. These ones are for the girls. Orange is the new Pink, by the way.
This shot is of the strips for the button bracelets, complete with some of the buttons laid out. The bracelets will then go inside the bags.

See the group flickr photos here

The pencil roll is also progressing. All the strips (more!) cut and hopefully today I may get to sew them together. Fingers crossed.

And just because I feel the need to share this with everyone, as you do, my other big WIP at the moment is toilet training Alice. I was going to hang out for Summer when these things are just easier to do. Less clothing, running around outside where accidents don't matter (as much) etc. But for some reason I flicked my "right, we are doing this NOW" switch on, and we started yesterday. So far, so good. Well, you know, as good as it gets. But definitely more promising than what Beth was, which is a whole other story for when you have the time and inclination to sit and listen to the toileting habits of my children. What? You have to go and look for loose change down the back of the couch? You can't stop and listen? Maybe some other time?

My favourite artist and author ...

2006-07-18T11:44:00.000+10:00

OK, so I'm a little biased. Beth started school this year and has reached the stage where she is starting to write little stories. Her words are written just as they sound, with a few other assorted letters thrown in for good measure and parental confusion. She will come and show me her drawing and story and ask me to read what she has written. "Um, well, maybe you should read it to me because it is your story?" In other words, I may be able to guess a few of the words, but some of them, I have no idea. Even now, looing back at the pictures, I am struggling to read them, so I will fill in the gaps where I can.

The one above is my favourite drawing. It is called "Ginger Cat" and she has written "My sister loves cats. She is 2 and she is Alice. Cats are cul (cool). I love that cats face.

This one is of a butterfly, spelt "brtsis". I am just grateful I could pick that one up from the drawing. Apart from "I love you" at the top and "I love brtsis", I am struggling to remember the rest. This one is an echidna, spelt "echr". There is something about prickles "pecle". "No lit for me pes", is no light for me please. They have been doing Australian animals at school, so this is in reference to the echidna being nocturnal. "But I love they", means she loves them, in spite of their prickles. A very forgiving child really.
Lastly, we have a Turtle. And "they go in wat". Wat being water.

Anyone who has a child start school would understand my fascination with Beth's progression with her reading and writing skills. It's just amazing how quickly they acquire these skills. I am expecting her first novel, "brtsis are cul" next term, so will post some extracts then. Her agent is currently in negotiations with the publishers.

Thank you for letting me indulge in some pride for my first born.

WIP Friday

2006-07-14T14:10:00.000+10:00

After my grand list of "things to do" as mentioned in my last post, I have actually made a start on one of the items. The pencil roll X 3. I figure it is just as easy to cut a heap of fabric into strips at once as it is to cut one strip of fabric. So I am making one for Beth, one for her friends birthday and one for another of her friends, as a thank you to his Mum for lending me some of her fabric scraps, including a swatch chart of Sanderson ticking. Now that was very nice. Hard to make these for boys though. It may be a little too on the floral side, but where possible, I am cutting a boy and a girl option. The pink gingham is the oilcloth I am going to try for the outer and part of the inner. Blue for the boys one, of course. I am a bit concerned about how it will roll, but will just bulldoze my way ahead. None of this mampy-pampy make a sample piece first. It's all or nothing.

And do you like that stripy grosgrain type ribbon? It is actually from a make-a-belt kit that cost me all of $1.42 because it was half price. I think it's about 1.5 metres long. I thought it would make a perfect tie for the roll, with it's coloured pencil stripes.

Pardon? What was that? Where did I buy it? Well, I was kind of doing more "research" for the TACK challenge and I stumbled upon it. OK, OK, I needed more cotton gingham and Spotlight is the only place I can find it. I know, I'm a hypocrite. But I'll live with that, now that I have my happy stripy ribbon. And I really was doing research.

Hopefully now I have sorted my Flickr issues. Never forget your password is all I can say. So check out all the Friday Craft WIP's here.

Enjoy your weekends!

Check (list), one, two...

2006-07-11T21:04:00.000+10:00

Nearly half way through July and I need to stop and take check of what I am endeavoring to achieve by the end of this month. Surely if I document it, it will be easier to work through? Right?

I need to finish my swap with Julie. This is drawing on at an embarrassing rate. I was making something that my heart and soul was just not into, hence, I was far from happy with the end result. Worked out what it was that I really wanted to make and have set to it. One down, one to go. It has been a good exercise for me though. Don't make what everyone else is making, make what you want to make.

Beth's birthday is at the end of the month and I have decided to make her a pencil roll. I was really inspired by Pink Chalk Studio's version, which has been a bit of a challenge to find the 24 different coloured fabrics. Especially since I decided to go against the Derwents and with the Faber Castell's, which have a GOLD, as in metallic, coloured pencil. But two very lovely friends have come to the rescue and let me rummage through their stashes and I think I may have almost done it. I am also going to try and make the rest of the roll with oilcloth. Could be tricky, but will give it a go. I just thought it would be a bit more child friendly and wipe clean. As a result of my friends generosity, in return I have promised another pencil roll (for a boy who I am assured will be quite happy with some of the floral fabrics ?) and a dishcloth, no, make-up purse for the other. May even throw in the old tissue holders for good measure. It sure is the tissue holder season here in Melbourne. Why, I could use one myself, but that would mean I would have to make another one, wouldn't it?
And Beth's birthday also means party favours. So, I have 10 of the bracelets to make, 14 little party favour bags which of course, I will sew, 4 little boys marble bags (the general consensus seemed to be give the boys a bag of rocks, but I thought marbles were far more sparkly) and our own party CD. Have asked my husband 417 times to install the CD burner, of which I know nothing about, but looks like I will have to go for 418 +.

I think that's about all. Is that enough? Do you think I should take on some more? Oh, of course, how could I forget, my TACK project. Now there has been some talk amongst the other participants about some hideous creations, perhaps suitable for the smallest room in the house. I however, hereby decree that I will get through this challenge with some molecule of crafting dignity left in tact. My project will be functional, yet classy, noice, yet un-knew-shew-al. Completely at home in any abode in Fountain Lakes.

Now I haven't posted a song for a while. So here we go. My sister's and I have this game where we have to tell each other what song we would sing when we are on Australian Idol (notice not if, but when - tragic) on each theme night. So Julie, Sarah and Katie, this one is for you. I will be singing this on Super Groups night, assuming U2 are a super group, complete with my Mary J "Bling Bling" sunglasses. And who knows, perhaps even Shannon or Guy could come back to sing the Bono part with me. Rock on.

Over and (rock) out. Back to the sewing, I think I'm safer there.

WIP Friday

2006-07-07T13:05:00.000+10:00

Today I thought WIP Friday was a great opportunity to showcase my latest challenge.
Yes, you may have heard the term bandied about here or here, by my fellow TACK challenged participants, Nic and Al.

In yesterday's post, I made brief mention of "Spotlight". Just the mere mention provokes many a comment, some good, some not so good. For those of you who aren't aware, Spotlight is a chain of stores that once upon a time, sold only fabric and haberdashery. Now I believe you can buy a green and purple spotted, three legged dog with the mange there. But just don't ask where you would find said dog. No staff member will be able to help you with that. And make sure you don't need to have some fabric cut to make said dog a cute little jacket because when you arrive at the cutting counter, you will pick up number 48 and they will be calling for number 3. And the 45 people ahead of you will all be carrying 8 bolts of fabric to be cut.

The challenge was to find three pieces of fabric that we felt best embodied the fabric on selection at Spotlight. This truly was a challenge, because where would you start? These were the pieces that I selected to send on to my TACK buddies.

Meow!

Now, in case you missed it TACK Challenge is tongue in cheek but I do need to tell everyone that I am a Spotlight VIP card holder. Because as much and all as I think Spotlight fabric leaves A LOT to be desired, there are things that you just have to buy there. And I am the first to own up and say I do this. But I never said it was an enjoyable experience.

Why do I love to hate Spotlight so much? Possibly because I remember the days in Melbourne when we did have quality large fabric stores, or emporiums even. I remember the days when Myer Melbourne had a fabric and haberdashery department. I remember the days when "Cleg's" was a much loved Melbourne institution. I have memories of going in to both with my mother. I was in there the other week and sure, they did have some lovely Liberty prints, but that was really about it. Just not what it used to be. And Lincraft, well, if you scrounge you can pick up a bargain or two, but if you think the service is poor in Spotlight .....

My work in progress is at the stage where I am playing with this "gorgeous" fabric, tossing around some ideas. We have to make something in a log cabin pattern. "Ahhh, pretty", I hear you say. Yes, oh yes, it will be. And just to tempt you a little more, I can reveal that my TACK Challenge WIP has a name! I can hear the gasps of horror, yet strange delight.

I tossed around many an idea. So much to play with. Australian animals, balloons, flames. I was contemplating something Mambo-esque with Jesus and the flames and the animals. Then it came to me. My piece will be called

"Bless my Soles"

Stay tuned for more TACK Challenge.

My Pretty Bracelets

2006-07-06T15:28:00.000+10:00

Beth and I made these bracelets together on the sewing machine. I have Beth sitting on my knee at the moment. She has had a day off school with a mystery illness. Mystery being where it went at 9.30 this morning. She has titled this post and asked me to type the first line as she dictated.

Yes, we did kind of make these together over the school holidays. The idea came from a Molly Chicken tutorial. Instead of using beads, we just used buttons. One was for Beth, another for her pen pal and the other two for the twin daughter's of my Mag Swap partner Amy, in California. I personalised them a bit with the initial buttons which I found in, shock, horror, Spotlight. I must say that you can take something from Spotlight and if you use it in the right context (ie. mix it in with a lot of other good stuff) then they aren't so bad? Right Al and Nic?

I'm going to make another batch of them for party favours for Beth's party. Which means I will have to make another 10. Who doesn't love sewing on buttons? Anyone? Anyone? Do I see any hands?

Speaking of party favours, am stealing the Kiddley idea of making our own CD's as well. So the girls will get a bracelet and a CD and the boys will have a CD and a ..... ? Does anyone know of any little "thing" that you can craft for 6 year old boys? I'm out of my league with boys craft things.
Only pink, frills and pretty in our house. Except for my husband, of course.

Oh, and for those who were interested in the "They Might Be Giants" kids CD called "No!" that Amy sent us in the Mag Swap, check out their site - www.giantkid.net
Their new ABC CD looks fantastic.

My small rant about swaps ...

2006-07-05T13:41:00.000+10:00

My magazine swap arrived. Thank you Amy. Love the magazines and the girls love the CD. Am I the last person on earth to know that "They Might Be Giants" released a kid's CD? Very cool.

There seems to be some discussions going on, in and around blog world at the moment regarding swaps. Auntie Cookie had a great post about swapping etiquette. I think the rule of thumb is do what you can do, when you can do it. Or that is my rule of thumb anyway. Otherwise, the swaps become like school homework. A chore that you are forced to do and really cannot enjoy. And I tend to get a bit passionate about my swaps.

My other rule of thumb is that I really like to post pictures of what I have received. Not to gloat, but to thank the person who has made or sent the swap. Fellow bloggers/lurkers go to so much trouble to wrap and parcel up these gifts. Not to mention the time taken to thoughtfully create something. And I am really grateful. There are no ulterior motives, or none that I am aware of. Sure, I get a buzz out of seeing something I have made on someone else's site. I would be lying if I said otherwise. As for it being my sole motive for swapping? No. I'm possibly to simple and naive. I love sending parcels. I love making things for other people and imagining them using them. I love wrapping things and I love finding gorgeous cards to write notes on.

I am currently on a mission to find some funky notecards that are "me". I am sending out Margaret Preston postcards at the moment, because she is just my favourite artist. And she is/was a woman and she is Australian. But they aren't really personal. Don't know really what I want, but I'm sure I will find/make it, eventually.

So, on that note, Julie at Handmaid, take a bow. All the way from Israel to Australia.
I could not in a million years do the things with paper that Julie does. We met via Whip-up's Whiplash challenges. She commented on my yarn flower and we have remained in blogging contact ever since. This gorgeous flower is her version of the yarn flower, so I guess it's the paper flower. Amazingly, she used no paint when making this flower, it's all coloured paper.

And how beautiful are these? All little girls should have one in their rooms!

Beth loves butterflies and her room is blue. Two facts Julie didn't know. Must be some kind of telepathic thing. And god knows, Alice needs an angel to watch over her. She insists on calling it a fairy and wants to play with it. Beth wanted to take her's to school for "show and tell". Although this shows the level of appreciation they have for their gifts, I stepped in and did the big mean Mummy thing. They are now safely hanging on their bedroom walls.

Thank you Julie. The time and effort you have taken with these gorgeous gifts is appreciated to no end.

Skirting around ...

2006-07-04T12:13:00.000+10:00

These are the skirts that I made with Beth's "assistance" last Friday. They were very simple and easy. Amazing what a bit of trim and a pocket can do!This is a more detailed shot of the outside of the pocket.
And of the inside. I seem to be lining everything with red gingham at the moment.
This is the trim at the bottom of Beth's.
And at the bottom of Alice's - thanks Marianne for the cute pink cherry ribbon trim.

And there you have it. Two little girl's skirts. One straight rectangle, with a gathered longer piece attached. Easy peasy.

The swap/blog gods have smiled down upon me ...

2006-07-03T14:29:00.000+10:00

Over the past week, I have been the very lucky recipient of some beautiful and amazingly generous mail. I have been waiting for some sunshine to take some photos that would do these gifts justice, but that Melbourne sun just isn't shining. I am on the verge of embarrassment that I have taken too long to acknowledge these wonderful little packages, so can wait for the sun no longer. So here they are.

Justine over at 62 Cherry and I did a swap. The girls and I received the sweetest little package in return. I am now the proud owner of my very own make-up purse. Beth has a gorgeous little cherry bag ("But how does that lady know I love cherries, Mum?) and Alice has a new cute-as-a-button singlet. Thanks Justine.I was the lucky recipient of this box of goodies (wonderfully packaged up) from Marianne at Applehead. Just because. How generous is that? My favourite thing - the barkcloth, with the wallpaper pieces a close second. Somewhere too in there was a block of Lindt's orange chocolate but it seems to have disappeared? I wonder where it could be? Oh, and a rocking CD for the girls from "Coco's Lunch", which is out in the car. The piece de resistance - an Applehead needle book. Thanks Marianne.

And do you believe this? Another "just because" package from Anastasia. She sent me a copy of Mary Engelbreit's "Home Companion", along with some other little bits and pieces for the girls to craft with and some fantastic gift tags. Thanks Anastasia.
Last but not least, my Magic Yarn Ball swap arrived today. From Julia in Lismore, NSW. I am not sure that Julia has a blog or a web site, if you do Julia, let me know. This was the biggest ball of yarn you have ever seen. And inside ...
Did I clean up or what? So many beautiful and thoughtful trinkets inside. There were some ceramic buttons that were really so sweet. A lovely coconut soap in the centre.
And how is this for vintage sewing treats. It's a bit hard to see those buttons on the card, but they have faces like the man in the moon on them. I'm sure there must be some story behind them. I adore them. And the ric-rac and trim! Oh! Julia did such a great job of picking things that I just adore. So thank you so much Julia, I had a "ball" unwinding the yarn and unwrapping (yes, they were all individually wrapped!) all the little gifts. The girls will be thrilled too.

This big old blogging world is certainly a good and happy one. Thank you to each of you for your kindness and for thinking not only of me, but my children also. Speaking of, better run and pick one up from school and stop playing with all my new toys!

WIP Friday

2006-06-30T23:13:00.000+10:00

Friday. Last day of the school holidays. We went to see a theatre production of "Pinnochio" this morning. Alice was mesmerised. Beth was sent nearly demented by the smell of the smoke they used for special effects. Remember the smoke they used to pump into nightclubs? They probably still do. But that was the smell. Every time the fairy appeared, there was smoke. And she appeared a lot. And Beth couldn't get out of there fast enough.

When we came home, I asked Beth what she would like to do while Alice was asleep. She casually replied "Umm ... sew a skirt." Her mother's daughter. So, we did. Two in fact. One for each of the girl's because they have a birthday party tomorrow. I put the sewing machine pedal up on the table and Beth pressed it for me. Yes, I have the patience of a saint. The novelty wore off after a while, but she came back and forth, choosing trim, offering advice, asking questions. Lovely.

I should have taken this photo earlier while we really did have a WIP. I still have some ribbon and buttons to attach, so it is still a WIP.

Hopefully, the finished shots will appear very soon.

See the other craft work's in progress here.

Picasso: Love & War 1935 - 1945

2006-06-30T22:42:00.000+10:00

National Gallery of Victoria from St Kilda Road.

Well, The dinner was made, the girls were bathed, my sister came over to babysit (Thanks Katie). My nails even had two quick coats of nail polish! Hamish came home, picked me up, and off we went.

Now, I don't want to appear like I am someone who knows their art. I enjoy art, but am by no stretch of the imagination, a critic. Those who know me may be laughing now that I even entertained this thought. Truth of the matter, I happen to be married to a man who is employed by a company who is a corporate sponsor of the National Gallery of Victoria. Hence, our invitation to the opening night of "Picasso, Love & War 1935 -1945". So read on bearing this in mind.

If you live in or have the chance to visit Melbourne in the next three months or so, visit this exhibition. It is moving. Yes, really moving.

I went along thinking I would see a few Picasso's. And yes, I did. For me though, this exhibition was about a period in time and a beautiful and passionate relationship. I am not going to explain the story here. I would ramble for hours. Rather, if you are interested, this article gives a great summation.

Dora Maar was what some describe as Picasso's true love. Honestly, I had never heard of her before. She was his muse for the "Weeping Woman" and was in her own right, an accomplished photographer, in the company of Man Ray. The exhibition shows many of her works and they are beautiful.

She was a striking woman and I was mesmerised watching an old film that is on display of Picasso, Maar and friends on their summer holiday's. If you enjoy the European style and fashion of the 30's and 40's, then you, like me, would just fall in love with this little film. It is so happy and carefree. But so tragic, as you then find that many of their friends were taken by the Nazi's and were never to return.

Many of the items on display were taken from Maar's apartment in Paris after she died in 1997. She had kept her home almost as a shrine to her time with Picasso. Hamish commented that he couldn't believe that the photos of the apartment were taken in '97. They could have so easily been taken in '37.

Afterwards, we even went out for cake and coffee! Can't remember the last time we did that.

It is a big exhibition, very detailed and beautiful. Well worth the effort though if you are able to go along.

Life. As a check-list ...

2006-06-28T12:21:00.000+10:00

My life is going by as one big check-list at the moment. Each trip to the post office sees another tick on my list. This is my Magic Yarn Ball, currently winging its way to Christy in Portland. Have a look at her fantastic artworks on her web site.
This is the magazine I am sending to Amy in Orange County, California, for Cotton Strudels Magazine Swap. She is an architect, so I hope she enjoys "Inside Out". It's one of my favourites. By the way, I'm not spoiling her surprise, she knows what she is getting, but there may be a few other surprises. Part of the swap package I sent to Justine. She admired my dishcloth purse so we decided to do a swap. I found a tutorial for making a tissue holder at Stardust Shoes so decided to make a little matching set. Because every grown up girl needs matching things in her handbag.
I lined it with red gingham to match the red gingham oilcloth lining in the make-up purse. Please excuse the state of the hand models hand. She was called in to do the shoot at the last moment and just didn't have time for a manicure and polish.
Very important item for check-list. Beth's 6th birthday party invitations. Last year I had Beth's party at home. There were 8 little girls and that was borderline nutty. Being in the middle of winter, I can't really send the kids outside, especially if it's raining (tempting and all as it may be). This year, the list of invitees expanded to 14 in total, including 4 boys. Boys add a whole new added dimension. Our house is small, but that's another story for another post entitled "We had plans drawn up so my husband could keep them in his bottom drawer". So, as much and all is it kills me to do it, we are going to a local hotel for the party. They have an indoor playground, do face painting and most importantly on Beth's party check-list, they have ice-cream cake. That kills me too, because every year I make Beth's cake. I've made a ladybird, Minnie Mouse, a butterfly, a princess castle. And all she wants is the ice-cream cake. So, to hang on to something of my daughter's birthday, I had to make the invitations. Because that is what I do. I cannot buy invitations. Not that I think twice when my girls receive a non hand made invite, but I have to make mine. And handwrite them, all, at all hours of the night. Because that is what I do. Because I can't help myself.
And here they are, all ready to be posted. Even though we walked past three of the party invitees home's to get to the post box. My pet hate is the Schindler's List approach to distributing children's party invitations. The child stands at their classroom door with their bundle of invites, "One for you", "No, you don't get one", "You can have one". It breaks my heart. So we post ours. And what child doesn't love receiving mail. Or child's mother for that matter.

And I think that Australia Post just needed to get that last cent out of my purse this week too. I have handed the equivalent of the national debt over to them this week.

I have also posted a parcel to Sara and last but not least, one will go out to Julie soon, I promise Julie, soon.

Off to Picasso tomorrow night. Frock, beads, boots and funky tights at the ready.

And this was going to be a quick post ...

Mermaids ...

2006-06-23T20:36:00.000+10:00

In my blog title, I mention that my inspiration (I feel like I am using words that don't belong here) for making things comes mostly from my girl's. That is very true of my latest creative endeavour.

Last year, I bought the girls some mermaid finger puppets. They loved them. They gave them little names and did plays with them that Hamish and I sat through on numerous occasions. The thought did cross my mind that sometimes these plays were used as stalling tactics so they didn't have to go to bed, but nonetheless, they were very amusing. And being finger puppet size, I would often pop them in my handbag when we went out, especially if we were "dining" (could you call it that?) and they would be amused for a further 5 minutes, at least.

Then they discovered that Lola loved Mermaids too. Especially the Mermaids in the typing pool in "I am Far Too Extremely Busy" and the ones in the underwater supermarket in "I Will Not Ever, Never Eat A Tomato" . Both episodes on our DVD. Then it was all over, red rover. Like the hooly hoops. The Mermaid phenomena hit town. It was all about Mermaids. Alice is now obsessed with watching "The Little Mermaid" and Beth quite often will come out dressed in her Mermaid costume (which I made, did I mention that?)

I am rather partial to Mermaids myself. They are very sophisticated. Unlike fairies, who tend to be a bit giggly. I would love to see the statue of "The Little Mermaid" in Copenhagen. What could be more stylish than a Danish Mermaid?

I am a huge fan of Lauren Child, which doesn't help my children's obsession with Charlie and Lola. I was very impressed to read that she collects Barbie doll Mermaids. Her illustrations of Mermaids are fantastic.

One day I grew tired of reattaching sequins, hair, shell bra tops etc onto the finger puppets. Thus igniting the creative fire to create my own mermaid. This is the second version. I learnt much from the first.

She measures 18 X 9 cm. Try turning that size inside out and then inserting the stuffing! My first version had little bends in her 8mm wide arms. That was never going to work, so now her arms are straight.

I also had a play with her hair. Version One had woollen hair. It just wasn't Mermaidy enough. I wanted something more underwater, seaweedy like. I have (not so) fond memories of my mother putting my hair in rags as a child, so Mermaid developed rag hair.

The other big thing for me was that none of her parts would be able to come off. So she is completely sewn together. No glue in sight. Version One has been road tested by Beth and Alice and I am pleased to say that no seems have yet burst nor any item of clothing been discarded.

And I just had to show you the cute little "swish" in her Mermaid tail.

I'm thinking of doing a whole series of Mermaids. Will keep you posted.

Now the song. I ran a search and found a song called "When Mermaids Cry" by Eagle Eye Cherry. But the links are getting far to literal for my liking, so who could go past "Save Tonight" . Just because I can.

Feeling a bit sick ...

2006-06-22T15:34:00.000+10:00

Taken on Tuesday, 20th of June. Beth (with her new funky hat on) standing in Federation Square with St Paul's cathedral in the background.

Our visitors are gone and I had such plans to catch up with things, but then, what happens when you have plans? Something to make sure your plans don't happen. I was laid very low yesterday with some kind of tummy bug and today the fog is lifting from my brain. I just feel yukky.

But on the up side, Hamish announced that he has scored tickets to the opening night of the Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery next Thursday night. Some frock shopping may be in order. See, I feel better already.

I have much crafting to finish and post out, so off I scoot.

And I just had to include the photo, taken by my father-in-law when we went in to Federations Square on Tuesday. It's almost picture postcard stuff.

Song for today - "Mr. Jones", Counting Crows. One of my favourite songs. It has a line in about Picasso (hey, at least it's a link and my head hurts) and it makes me want to dance after feeling so horrible.

Sunday in the City ....

2006-06-18T21:34:00.000+10:00

Today we went into the city with our special visitors, DD and Amanda. DD is Hamish's Dad, called DD because he is Dad's Dad. Of course. Amanda is his lovely partner. They are staying with us for a few days from Townsville. Here are some shots of our day, and yes, it's cold. What do you do on a cold day? Eat ice-cream of course. It is becoming near impossible to have a photo of Alice without this face.
The family all gathered around and intrigued by this new fandangled technology thing. It was a touch screen information booth. Beth wanted to have a go and I am attempting to restrain Alice from thumping the thing - her version of "touch screen". Hamish looks a tad on the dopey side, but really, he's not. Trust me.
Hang on a minute! What's this! A normal smile! Hat courtesy of DD, hand made in Townsville from the markets.
I love this one. As we were walking along Southbank, there was one of those street performers who are painted and dressed all in grey and look like a statue. Until they move and you nearly jump out of your skin. I have a long running distrust of street performers. They seem to detect this and do really embarrassing things to me. Beth has inherited this distrust. So while everybody else ran forward to watch this statue person, Beth and I hung back. I'm telling her that it is OK, it's really just a man dressed as a statue and she just can't work out why someone would want to dress as a statue and stand in the middle of Southbank. Had to say, I agreed.

DD took these photos, so there's not a single one of him or Amanda. Maybe a shot or two in the next day or so.

As an end note, I have been inspired by Marianne over at Applehead with her musical soundtracks. I have decided that I am going to try and end most of my posts (please note I didn't say all of them) with a song of the day/post. A song that either seems to fit the post, or a song that is on my mind or one that I am just going to throw in for the hell of it.

So today's song was going to be the Australian classic from the eighties (yes, I'm back there again. I'm going to do a cover version of Skyhooks "Living in the 70's", just change the decade) "One Perfect Day" by Little Heroes. I always loved this song and today was just such a lovely day, it kind of just sat nicely. I always imagined it was grey and cloudy in this song, and today was perfect, but grey and cloudy. Nothing profound about that my friends.

In my search for the song, I uncovered a Sara Storer version. Now, I'm no country music aficionado, but I don't mind a bit of Sara. She has a great Aussie twang. This version is really melodic and lovely, so without further ado, for your listening pleasure...
Song of the Day - "One Perfect Day" - Sara Storer. But you have to scroll right down to the botom, to the last song, and hit download video. You didn't think I would hand it to you on a plate, did you?

Red Friday

2006-06-16T10:54:00.000+10:00

ReD iS mY FaVOurITE anD mY BeSt.

I have waited all week to post a photo that included the girls and couldn't go past this one that I took of them outside at my sister-in-law's last weekend. I did the bad mother thing this year and bought them both exactly the same coats for winter. I just had to. This coat is so warm and functional (being long) and cute too. The detail on the sleeves has little birds all through it. I saw them weeks ago and decided they were far too expensive but then, thank you god, they went on SALE. Hence, we have two red coats.

My girls love hoola hoops, but they call them hooly hoops. This is because Lola calls them hooly hoops. If Lola says they are hooly hoops, they must be hooly hoops. I tried to correct Beth one day, and it only ended in tears. So, hooly hoops it is.

We have visitors staying here from tomorrow until Tuesday. The computer is fairly central in our living room, so I may not post again for a few days. See, no computer room, no sewing room. How do I survive?
That is for my husband, if he happens to be reading ??

Blue Monday, I mean Thursday ...

2006-06-14T21:57:00.000+10:00

OK, back to the warm and fuzzies after the disturbing day that was Black Wednesday. With a blog named "Mummy Jo", did you really think I was that scary?

Did anybody else love "New Order" as much as I did? Why did I put this title on this post? Now I can't get the song out of my head. "How does it feel, to treat me like you do" Are you singing it too now? Showing your age?

I took this photo on the weekend on a day that was really gloomy and overcast. I was looking at it from different angles and at first, all I had in the background was cloud. Then I turned and from out of nowhere, blue sky!

I'm really enjoying colour week and finding so many new blogs with great photos. If you're a new visitor here, thanks. My new visitors have been really lovely.

See, I'm not scary at all.

"Now I stand here waiting ........"

Come on, come back to the eighties with me for just a moment. You know you want to.

Black Wednesday ...

2006-06-14T11:50:00.000+10:00

It's Black Wednesday. A chance for everyone to show their dark sides. I've got my knives out for the occasion. Watch your back !

Brown Tuesday ...

2006-06-13T09:20:00.000+10:00

I have a soft spot for brown. I am the eldest of four daughters and Mum always dressed us in colour codes. I was brown. Mind you, my sister's were red, blue and pink and at the time, brown was terrible. Now, I think it's wonderful. My school uniform was brown. Chocolate is brown. It is so earthy and rich and aged. Full of character.

One of our favourite places to take the girls when we go into the city is a little shopping arcade called the Royal Arcade. It is beautiful with lovely old architecture, little shops full of character and the infamous Gog and Magog statues that chime in the hour with their clock. One of the shops in the arcade is Koko Black. Even though the name is black, it is very brown. Check it out for some mouth watering brown goodness.

Enjoy your Brown Tuesday.

White Monday

2006-06-12T21:39:00.000+10:00

Back in the PB days (pre-blog), when I was just a lurker and occasional commenter, I loved the colour week that Stephanie and Mav instigated. I really enjoyed seeing all the interpretations and lovely pictures. I thought to myself, self, if you ever have a blog and that week comes up again, you would really enjoy doing that, wouldn't you? And so, with great delight, I found last week that Colour Week is on again.

Being a long weekend here and having been away, my effort on white was a little rushed. We came home and all I could think about was washing, unpacking, school tomorrow, what were we having for dinner, oh look, the white camellia is out. White. There is a god. So here is my first contribution.

I did manage to cram some sewing into my weekend. I was all confused and in my enthusiasm to pack the machine, thought that I had an extra day up my sleeve, like Easter. So instead of catching up on sleep, I caught up on sewing with some late night sessions. Finished what I hoped to get done, so am feeling a bit more on track. Not sure which track though.

And for those interested in the Teflon foot story, here it is. I am in love. If you are sewing oilcloth to oilcloth, there is simply no other way. The foot just glides like it was, well, Teflon coated. Seriously, it was a generic brand one to fit a machine with a low shank and cost me $14 at Spotlight. I found good lurking in the sewing machine foot section. Not sure about the fabric section ...

More colour tomorrow.

Damn You Frat Boys ...

2006-06-09T09:58:00.000+10:00

I know, I know, kind of weird title for a post, but I have just been hanging out to say that all day and there has been no appropriate point at which to casually throw it in. So there, now I have.
If you are thinking I have lost my mind, here in Australia, we had the final of "The Amazing Race" last night and there really is a God when two guys like BJ and Tyler can triumph over people like "The Frat Boys" and "MoJo".
And just in case I don't have a chance to say this again today, T-TOW!

Now, back to sanity...

Such a cold wintery morning here. I talk about the weather a lot. Have you noticed? Not because I don't have anything else to say and feel like I need to talk about the weather to punctuate the silence. It's because I love the changing seasons and the differences that they bring. I love that the trees are golden for such a short period because it makes you stop and appreciate them even more.

I walk Beth to and from school. We are lucky because we live really close. There is a park that separates us from the school. Mind you, walking with a five and a two year old makes that walk seem three times as long. It is so lovely just to point out to the girls all the changing things around us. Like the wattle that has just started to bloom. Or the delicate beads of water suspended on this little spider's web. Now that is craft for you.

We're off away for the weekend to Jarmie's. Jarmie is my mother-in-law. She was going to be "grandma" but when Beth started talking she began calling her Jarmie. So Jarmie she is and now everyone calls her Jarmie. It is a three and a half hour drive, not including stops, so we don't get up there that often, but the girls love nothing better than running around up there. To mark the occasion, I have bought them both a new pair of gumboots. Pink with glitter. I hope they don't get them muddy! (Im joking).

The most exciting part about this weekend for me is that I am taking my sewing machine. Hopefully I will be able to catch up on some sewing for some parcels that I need to send out (Sara, Julie, Justine ...). I just have to hope that the universe conspires to give me some quality sewing time. Maybe if I just throw in one more "T-TOW!" for good measure ?.

PS - Have a look at the Mag Swap link on the right if you are in Australia or anywhere besides the States because they are looking for some more international Mag swappers. Who doesn't love a good Mag?

From Kansas With Love ...

2006-06-07T12:56:00.000+10:00

It is such a beautiful, sunny Winter's day here in Melbourne. The early morning blanket of fog has lifted and it is crisp and clear and you just want to suck it all in.

This morning was my morning for being the "parent helper" in Beth's class at school. I do this once a fortnight and it is just such a joy to go and do, not to mention very, very interesting. I am the mother of one of the "good girls", of course, that goes without saying (excuse me while I clear my throat and beat my chest). Some of those little boys - ay,yi, yi ! I am just so not used to boys.

To be a parent helper, you have to complete four or five training blocks in regards to literacy that centre on reading and writing and how it is taught in school. Very different to when I was at school back in, oohhh, ummm, yes, let's not go there. We go into the class when they do their literacy block first thing in the morning and assist the teacher. The class is broken up into small groups and they complete different activities. This morning I took two sessions of word bingo. Great fun and so nice to spend some time with Beth in her class.

When I do this, Alice goes to a friends house who lives just around the corner who has a daughter in Beth's class and another little girl who is Alice's age. They have a play for the morning together, or should I say, they argue over what belongs to who, with moments of playfulness thrown in for good measure. That's two year old's for you.

After I picked Alice up, we were walking home, kicking the Autumn leaves, talking, trying to instill some road sense into a strong willed child. We were almost home when I spotted something sitting on our front door step. A parcel ! The parcel fairy's had been.

The very sweet Sara had sent us a parcel from Kansas. Inside were these two gorgeous koala's called Lulu and Mae. But wait, that's not all.

She has made up the best CD for the girls. We have been getting down and funky with it all morning. There is a song on it called "Number One" and we have been loving that one. Sara will have to let me know who sings it. And for me (do I sound all important and spoilt bratish?), one of her cute as a button funky monkey purses, which are cute AND functional. Great little outside pocket and little link chain thingy to put keys on. Sara has obviously heard me before. "Keys, keys, where did I put my keys?". Even kinder was the inclusion of some pieces of the funky monkey fabric and, as I pause to draw breath, a piece of my favourite and my best, Amy Butler, from the Charm range.

The lovely gocco print card is made by Sara too and she has them for sale in her Etsy shop.

Thank you so much Sara, you have made three girls day's. And needless to say, my husband will once again marvel at how I could get so excited about a parcel and it's contents. I think blokes missed getting that gene.

Little boxes make of ticky-TACKy...

2006-06-05T13:46:00.000+10:00

And here we have Miss Alice, modeling today's little box that came in the mail. It's her Mummy Jo's Whiplash prize book, "Holiday Knits". And what a delightful prize it is too. Her Mummy has fallen in love with some of the patterns. Her favourite and her best is this one.
How cute is this hat? Maybe in something like an orange and pink for a girl? Or "ondinge" as Beth would always say. Ondinge has always been her favourite colour. I did have an "oh bummer" moment with this though. There is no pattern for the little bird in the pocket. The pattern is just for the hat. And now that I have seen the little bird, that hat must have a bird. If anyone has or knows where I can find a pattern for a little bird or any other little creature for that matter, please let me know!! The pocket measure 2 1/4 inches or about 6 cm roughly square.
At first when I saw this scarf, I thought, oh no, but it is really growing on me. Not in the pink, too lolly, but a more earthy, natural tone could be great.Quite like this little poncho too. It's a matching mother/daughter set and we won't be going there, but for the girls maybe?

Now I did mention last post that there are some exciting swaps coming up that I am involved in. One is a three way swap with the very lovely Alison and the very lovely Nicole. Think BackTack, minus the Back. TACK. Each of us has to purchase three different pieces of fabric from our much loved "Spotlight". The fabric must be something that we think the recipients will just "love". Girls, I know you are just busting to take a peak, so seeing as your parcels went out in the mail today, I will let you have just a little look.
The challenge (thanks Alison) is to then construct something out of this stunning fabric, using the log cabin pattern. My mind is racing. What to make, what to make? Stay tuned for more TACK.

And thanks to Kath and everyone at Whiplash/Whip-up for the great book.

What day is it?

2006-06-03T21:49:00.000+10:00

Has it been a whole week since I posted? I've just been so busy, and I have so much to tell, forgive my ramblings, it could be a long one.

A completed task! I have finished my square for Nichola's Wall of Yarn Gallery. Please, may I never see another knitted flower again? Well, not for a long time anyway. In the spirit of "use what you have month", ( What? It's over? Never mind what day it is, what month is it?) I have used one of the flowers and the leaves from my Whip-up entry. There was method in my madness. The square is basic moss stitch (k1, p1) which is a favourite of mine. Easy, and I love the texture.

The wool, now there is a story. Last year I discovered Nundle Woolen Mills. I decided I was going to knit Beth and Alice jumpers each. I fell in love with the rhubarb and celery 8 ply pure wool. So much so that I wanted to eat it. I realise now that I would have had a severe fluff ball problem and would have likely choked, but look at those colours! I decided on the rhubarb for Beth and knitted her what I thought was a lovely jumper. Yes, it did have a flower on it and little flower buttons. She thought it was gorgeous, but then she put it on. "Mummy it's itchy, take it off me, it's itchy!!!" Repeat this about 27 times, with growing hysteria each time and picture me trying to make her stand still so as I could just admire my handwork. It ended in tears all round. Needless to say, there was no way I was going to shed more blood, sweat and tears on a jumper for Alice. So everything I have done this year is in celery. I am very good at "use what you have". I saw the other day that someone has started a "finish what you have" month. I would seriously fail that one.

I wanted my little square to look a bit like something from my Nannie or Grandma's house. I'm not sure I have captured that exactly, but I didn't want it to get too fussy either. So I've wrapped it and I will put it in the post on Monday. I did have visions of hand delivering it to Nichola, but I thought it would be better to go in and see the gallery when it is up.

I got a little carried away with the wrapping and wanted to include a little something for Nichola for all her work with putting the gallery together. So I made her a little pin from a Molly Chicken tutorial .

Don't fret Nichola, you can take your name card off. And it seems I have progressed from knitted flowers to fabric flowers. Well, at least it's some sort of progress.

I have so many other things I want to talk about, but I think I will leave them so as I have more things to talk about in the coming week and I don't leave it another week to post.

Just to tease, there are swaps, including the Magic Yarn Ball and another very special swap that is just too exciting to tell you about yet. Parcels are being put together for some new blogging friends. I love parcels.

And in breaking news, I bought a Teflon foot for my sewing machine. The idea here being that the oilcloth that I have started to sew with will glide through my machine like silk (or cotton, I'd be happy if it worked like cotton, even really heavy denim would suffice). I haven't tried it yet, it may not even fit my machine, but I love it when I find a foot for my machine that does a new tricky little job.

I think that will do.

And I do know what day it is. Happy Birthday Julie. My sister.

Hang on, funny story, I'm sure she won't mind if I share it. We shared a bedroom for many, many years growing up. I think it was last year that we both told each other that on a few occasions, each of us has woken up and called our husbands by the sister's names - ie. I have called Hamish, Julie. And before you go thinking this is all weird, it was the same bedroom.

And both of us can recite the verse that the Raggedy Ann alarm clock woke us with every morning.

"Andy, Andy, please wake up, it's time to call our friends...."

And on that note, I'm signing off.

The multi-purpose gift for the girl who has everything...

2006-05-28T21:39:00.000+10:00

And so another weekend has been and gone, but hey, what's this? I made something! A little make-up purse. Modeled on the one's that I made for the school Mother's Day stall, which I made up out of some of my scraps.

This is the new and improved version. Cotton fabric outer (I cut my precious piece of Denyse Schmidt fabric so I guess now it must be time for some more?), Cotton batting/wading inner, and oilcloth lining. I was originally going to use the pink gingham oilcloth with this fabric, but it was just all wrong. The pinks were just not in the same ballpark. My own fault. But then I noticed that some of the flower centres were almost red and bingo.

First time I have tried to sew with oilcloth and it wasn't so bad. Fine when you are sewing fabric to oilcloth. Oilcloth on oilcloth - ey,yi,yi! It just doesn't feed through. I have read some hints, which I followed up to a point. So next time I will try the masking tape trick. If things are really working well, I may invest in a teflon foot. Although, when all else fails, brute force works wonders when your fabric just won't move through your machine.

The other alteration I had to make was that the oilcloth just didn't want to fold over to make the little edge border on the front, so I resorted to edging with the ribbon. Tricky to start with, but when I worked it out, easy peasy.

Last time I made little ties out of fabric, but turning them back out the right way was driving me nuts. I made 27 purses and the most time consuming part was those ties. I have the stab wounds from the knitting needle to prove it. This time I used ribbon instead, which works just as well. I would really like some grosgrain, so am starting to look around and see what's out there. If anyone can suggest a good retailer/supplier either online or in Melbourne, I would really appreciate it. Spotlight and Lincraft just aren't cutting the mustard.

So there it was, my little make-up purse. I was almost falling in love with it, but alas, I had to give it away. It was a girlfriend's birthday and what girlfriend wouldn't want such a cute little purse? Off I went up the street to give it to her, she unwrapped it (very graciously) and then asked if it was a dishcloth? A dishcloth !!!! I must add that at this point it was facing wrong side up and when she turned it over, she did say "Oh, a little purse!", but I am still recovering. Perhaps if you took your make-up out and you had run out of Chux cloths, I could see that maybe you may think "I could wash my dishes with my make-up purse!".

If anyone knows of a therapy group for people whose sewing endeavours are mistaken for dishcloths, please let me know.

Oh, and my little balloon cards are winging their way to Israel to Julie. Funnily enough, being in Israel and all, she didn't have a big call for the Christmas one's. If anyone would like those, just let me know.

Up, up and away ...

2006-05-25T22:47:00.000+10:00

Edit - I just couldn't live with the fact that I had posted such bad photos, so have taken these this morning. In the sunlight. What a brilliant idea!

It's late and I'm not too sure what has possessed me to be doing this now. Even though I can't find a place with enough light to take decent photos I am still doing it. I have had these little tags sitting around for ages and something today made me think, hey, maybe there is somebody out there who can put these to far better use than my drawer can. They are vintage late 60's/early 70's and are little gift tags. They are a thin card and measure just under 4 X 9 cm. Don't ask me to convert to inches, like I said, it's late. The orange balloon one is very sweet, I just can't really seem to find a use for them. But wait, that's not all ...

Christmas tags! Yes, you can never have too many vintage Christmas tags in May! I did use some of these last Christmas and I love those groovy bells, but my wrapping didn't do justice to the tags. I always leave Christmas wrapping to the last minute and I really needed some funky pink and orange paper for the bells.

So, all up I have 10 of the orange balloon tags and a mixture of 10 Christmas tags. They are all as new and come from a smoke free, pet free home. Oh wait, that's e-bay. I am really tired now.

Maybe some paper craft person who makes wonderful collages may like them, or someone who is into their gift wrapping far more than I will ever have the time to be. I have kept one or two just in case the spirit ever takes me.

If you think you can offer them a better home than I have, e-mail me. Whoever makes the most impassioned plea in the next 24 hours may have them.

Quilts - the story so far ...

2006-05-23T11:40:00.000+10:00

I'm not sure why I started making quilts. When we were living in New Zealand, back pre-children, I remember being out shopping and unwittingly discovering something called fat quarters. What the ...? So then I started collecting fat quarters randomly from different places we traveled around. Now I look at a quilt and remember choosing particular pieces of fabric. Which is really quite funny because at the time I had no idea what I was going to do with them.

I am not a class person, which makes it sound like I have no class. Some may say this is true, but what I am really saying is that I am very impatient. If I want to make something, I will make it (or start it) now and learn by trial and error. The thought of sitting through a class makes me feel a little ill. I only go when friends gently persuade me, and only then because I know I will have a good laugh with them. Back around 2001, I decided that I really wanted to make a single bed quilt for Beth. I had no idea how to do this. I found a fat quarter mystery quilt pattern on the internet and found that the directions were really easy to follow. At the time, this was what was important for me. A pattern that I could easily follow. In hindsight, perhaps I wouldn't have chosen this pattern again today.

I decided it was going to be a red quilt. I became obsessed in the hunt for the "right red". In one shop that I was hunting in, I will always remember the person there telling me "It doesn't have to match, it just has to go", as she watched me taking bolt after bolt off the shelf, holding it to my existing fabrics, shaking my head and saying "no". Valuable lesson number one. I wish I had have found this lady earlier. The fabric I then chose made the quilt come alive.

I made this quilt without a cutting mat. You don't want to know how I made it. I had a rotary cutter though ..... I was unaware that precision was important and followed my cutting rule of thumb, near enough is good enough. Here is the end result.

I call this "freestyle". Which then means it is meant to look like that. Can you imagine my horror when I went to "stitch in the ditch" to quilt this? More like dog leg in the ditch. So I quilted it with hearts, fifty in total. I told Beth I did hearts to show her how much I loved her. Technically, this wasn't wrong. Valuable lesson number two. When you are impatient, yet seek perfection, don't choose the tricky triangle patterns. At the end of the day, I was quite happy with my first quilting result.

Moving right along to quilt number two. I had by now discovered the joys of fabric on-line and discovered Amy Butler. Where had she been all my life? I bought the fabric and fondled it for twelve months before I decided what I was going to do with it. I just couldn't cut it all up into little pieces. So big squares it was. I categorised all the fabric by pattern size and depth of colour and drew up a grid and mapped it all out. That way I would have a more even and interesting spread of fabric, with no clusters of colour or pattern. This time I was a little more careful with my cutting, but still managed to be out by millimetres on some squares (how does that happen?). Very happy with my end result and even happier with the machine quilting that I paid an arm and a leg to have done. After my first hand quilting experience, a queen size quilt just made me feel dizzy at the thought.

Still no binding though. Oh well, one day.

I enjoyed the big squares so much that my next two quilts I made were this pattern again in a cot size. One for a friend, the other for my niece. I then started on one for Alice, but now she is in a bed. That is the problem with quilting. As much and all as I love the end result, it just takes me so long. Alice's room is an apple green with purple/mauve trim, hence the colours in her quilt.

I wanted to use all floral patterns, especially violets. It became difficult to find a green fabric with a big pattern on it, so some of these fabrics are a bit "older" than I would have liked for her, but when you see this in her room, it goes really well. I will use it as a foot runner, doubled over at the end of her bed. Seeing all the log cabin squares about at the moment is tempting me to try my hand at a single bed quilt for her bed, but I really must finish this one first. Yes, they are safety pins you can see in it.

I am hand quilting this one. Just doing loopy waves, no pattern, who needs a pattern when you can stuff it up quite well on your own without a pattern interfering. I am going to use different shades of mauve and green embroidery thread.

There you have it. The story so far. I am seeing more and more fabric I love everyday and modern styles that I didn't know existed a couple of years ago when I started. Two things that are my golden quilting rules. 1. Only ever use cotton batting. Who wants to cuddle up to nylon? and 2. When choosing and placing fabric, does the fabric I am placing make the quilt "sing". I read that once and it has always stuck with me. You can place one piece and think it's OK, but then put another piece and step back and say "wow". If only that was so easy.

I'm a Winner !!!

2006-05-19T14:24:00.000+10:00

Are you allowed to post about being a winner? I'm not sure if there is a bloging protocol for gloating, but indulge me for just a moment. Especially because the last art/craft thing that I won was in 1975 (yes, do the maths, that was 31 years ago, some of you weren't even born) when I won my prep grade colouring competition. It's been a long time between drinks.

I was one of the three winners in last weeks Whiplash challenge for the theme "Yarn". This challenge was one of the motivating factors for me to start blogging. It was like the last incentive that I needed. Previous to this challenge, I either didn't have the time or the creative urge just wasn't there. Last weekend there really wasn't too much happening and I really did just literally whip this up.

I have been knitting lots of flowers lately and because they are quick I thought they would make a good project. A flower is a flower though, so for me, the key was going to be in the presentation. My work is not intricate or especially unique, but I thought perhaps if my commentary was a little witty and my photo was OK, it may make a presentable entry. Far from my mind was it being a winning entry.

As a Mum at home trying to work out if the things she makes are half decent, my only feedback comes from a husband who says "yes" without lifting his head to look and two little girls who think anything their Mum does is great. Which is very beautiful, but not the subjective opinion I am after. To have an arena or forum like Whiplash for me, is great. And honestly, winning is just such a bonus.

I have found the commentary surrounding Whiplash a little interesting. Perhaps that comes from it being a competition with winners. (Says me - insert gloat again here). I entered as a way to showcase something that I had made to a larger audience and frankly, to see if I could generate a little more traffic my way. Just so as I don't feel like I am blogging to myself. Quite sad really. But that was all. I think some of the comments coming out are because there are some (can I say this) competitive people out there. Nature of the beast I guess.

Thank you to Kath for providing a forum for people to express their creativity. Now excuse me while I bask in the afterglow .....

The Cherry Dress ...

2006-05-18T13:28:00.000+10:00

"The Cherry Dress" is a book that has become a favourite in our house for so many reasons.

It was one of those books that Beth would borrow and re-borrow again from the library. She always borrowed it as an audio book and we would bring it home and sit down and listen to it.

I love the book because it tells the story of a grandmother who sews her granddaughter a dress made out of fabric with cherry's on it. The dress is then posted to the granddaughter who loves it, grows out of it and passes it on to her sister. The dress is passed on again to friends, cousins, even a teddy until eventually it comes full circle. It is a beautiful story about sharing and about how when we are finished with things, someone else can have as much enjoyment out of them as we have.

This little story appeals to me on so many levels. Firstly, what self respecting girl wouldn't want to receive a parcel in the mail with a cherry dress in it? Could there be anything sweeter? Secondly, the grandmother sewed the dress with love. A nice lesson for children that all clothes don't come from the shops. And thirdly, I have made mention before about the fact that I love cherries. They are bright and red and summer and all things happy. Some may say they are just a fruit. Not me. Cherries make me feel good. So much so that when it came time to decorating Beth's bedroom, it became the cherry room. She even calls it the cherry room. Tragic, I know, but it could have been pineapples or bananas I guess.

The Cherry Dress in the Cherry Room.

We have our own cherry dress. I admit, I did buy it and pay far more for it than I could really justify, but it was a handmade bought one. And it was a cherry dress (with a few other happy assorted fruits thrown in for good measure) and I had to have it. When Beth saw it, she recognised straight away that it was a "cherry dress". It was a little too big for Alice last summer, but next summer it will be perfect. Hopefully after she wears it, we will be able to pass it on to another little girl. This summer just gone, I made Beth a cherry skirt, which is just the big girls version of the dress. I think one day, if the girls ever marry, I will have to sew a little cherry applique on the inside of their dress somewhere.

If you are looking for the book, it's not a new one, it was published in 1999. The author is Elizabeth Honey. It's just such a lovely story that we read time and time again. I think I will have to start the campaign for all little girls to have cherry dresses. Then again, maybe what I really want is to start the campaign for all big girls to have cherry dresses too. With red shoes, of course.

Golden Days ...

2006-05-16T16:07:00.000+10:00

Today started out so promising. I was out hanging washing on the line before 9.00 am. It doesn't get much better than that. Then I looked up and this is what I saw. I had to run inside to get the camera and take this photo. There I was basking in the glorious Autumnal Colours, breathing it all in, feeling like an old hippy ....

It was not much longer after this that I had both children at the doctors in between refereeing their fights and having a man outside the chemist tell me, "Got your hands full there, love". My day had officially turned to custard.

Onwards and upwards. Let's go back to remembering how wonderful my children really are. Here are my Mother's Day treasures.

Beth made the card on the left in her Italian class and the flower and heart card with her class teacher.

She made this one at home. I love the colour combination.

This is what she wrote on the inside. At the moment, when she writes, I am never Mummy, I am always Jo with a back to front J.

This is a drawing that was used as wrapping. It's a picture of me at my sewing machine, which is the orange object next to the flower in the pot. Note the "To Jo" with the back to front J again.

Now, this one is from Alice. She drew the picture and Hamish asked her what she wanted to write. Precious.

The little dish was chosen by Alice at the school Mother's Day stall. When Hamish gave money to Beth, Alice wanted some too. I was helping out with the stall, so one of my friends took Alice to help her choose. Beth chose the earrings. Hard to see, but they are little glass balls and very nice. Beth made the gold sparkly "bling' box at school. Fantastic!

Speaking of bling boxes, this is what Hamish and the girls went out and chose for me. Meet "Big Jim". Some might think he is a tool box, but for a girl with no sewing room living out of badly organised green shopping bags, he is my saviour.

Aaahh. Still not finished sorting and emptying the bags yet, but I am loving it already. Now I understand why men love their tool boxes.

At the end of opening all of these little treasures I felt very spoilt indeed. After sitting here recounting them all, I have almost forgotten all about the disaster that today has been, love.

Mother's Day

2006-05-14T23:40:00.000+10:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mummy's, Mommy's and Mama's. Whatever we are called, we all share the same love of our children the world over.

A special mention to all the almost Mum's too. I know that someone who I love dearly will be reading this and by now will be completely over Mother's Day. Some of us take becoming a mother for granted. For other's it is not so easy. I cannot believe this persons strength of character and soul for all that she has been through in trying to conceive. I know that one day she will become a mother and not only that, she will be the best too.

Now, that photo. Can I say that I love those little hands? Yes, it is the girls in their skirts. I finished them a good week or so ago, but just haven't been able to co-ordinate both skirts being clean at the same time. We went out this morning for morning tea with my Mum, Dad and one of my sister's and they wore them, so when we came home, out came the camera, before on went the mud. Note to self - Next year, stay home for Mother's Day. A booking at a cafe means nothing. And the bad service that follows means even less to the owners. And having worked in hotels, I am the queen of hating bad service.

Back to the skirts. They are incredibly easy to make. Even for me. They are just straight strips cut to measurements, no pattern involved. Can you believe a girlfriend and I went to a class to learn how to make them?

Along with the two of us were two other ladies. On the list of class requirements was a ruffler foot. When we went to buy one, turns out they cost almost $90. Now for these ladies, that was $90 well spent. Each week they would bring to class something that they had recently ruffled within an inch of it's life. If it moved, it was ruffled. Cushions were a specialty, finished off with a lethal dose of machine embroidery. For us though, $90, No way! Then it was suggested that a gathering foot could do an equally good job as the ruffler, and perhaps the generic $4 foot may fit our machines? Bingo and thank you very much. I now love my gathering foot almost as much as those ladies loved ruffling.

But not as much as I love my girls. Happy Mother's Day.

A Botanical Study of the Yarn Flower, or, Whiplash - Week 5 - Theme - Yarn

2006-05-14T21:34:00.000+10:00

The Yarn Flower, or Yarnus Plena, is native to south east Australia. It is renowned for it's bountiful flowers, blooming in mid autumn through to late winter.

The flower develops as a small green head, opening to a large fragrant bloom, pink to mauve in colour. When the leaves of the Yarn Flower are rubbed, they leave a residue, not unlike lanolin, on the skin. Makes a stunning cut flower which will last inside for an eternity. Beware that children may complain that when felt against the skin, the yarn flower will make them itchy, leading to incessant complaints.

Enjoys a position of full sun. Prune after flowering.

This post is sponsored by Kleenex....

2006-05-11T22:08:00.000+10:00

I had every plan this evening of sitting down and writing about something flippant like baking, making skirts or the controversy surrounding "whiplash", which I have been watching with interest. I had some clothes to fold (as you do) so thought I would do that first while watching some TV. Bad move.

Firstly, I watched "Missing Person's Unit". That in itself wasn't too bad. One story in particular about a man who has been searching for nine years for his sister was a bit emotional. In hindsight now, I know that this show was just used as the warm up for "Hello Goodbye". This is a "real life" show set in the international arrivals and departures of Sydney airport.

I was a blubbering mess! It doesn't actually take much for me to lose it. I often cry several times during the nightly news. I have vowed and declared that I will never watch this show again. I can't take the emotional strain! There was a mother waiting for her five year old son who she had left behind in Argentina. She hadn't seen him for eight months. Although I did think the show was very exploitive of people who were extremely vulnerable, the emotion here was just excruciatingly real.

Then there was the Sudanese family who had been forced to flee their country, leaving behind a two year old son. They had no idea if he was dead or alive but with the help of the Red Cross, had found him alive and well with his grandmother in Ethiopia. He was now 12 years old and the reunion was beautiful.

Every day I see people and consciously or subconsciously, I judge. It may be something as minor as an appearance (yes, I judge on appearances far more frequently than I care to admit) or something a little more harsh such as a person's parenting skills, or what I deem to be lack thereof. It is a very simple lesson, one that I have heard many a time, don't judge a book by it's cover. And this TV show, as tacky and all that it was, bought it all home.
Everyone of us has a story to tell. Some choose to wear that story like a badge, other's wear it more like, well, a singlet. You wear it to keep you warm, but you don't actually want anyone to know that you have it on. The pain that some people are forced to bear in life is enormous. Only this week I have learnt indirectly of two people who I know through various associations with my children (and have known for some time now), who have lost a child. One child was 18 months, the other 14 years old. Both in absolutely tragic circumstances and both happened before I knew these people. I now look at them in a very different light and am in awe of their strength. I think these stories have been weighing in on my mind too.

To tie this all together, I guess I just really wanted to say what a very good girlfriend of mine says, "walk a mile in my moccasins", and may I use this post as a little reminder to always be grateful for life as I know it in this moment.

Now back to normal broadcasting .....

A few of my favourite things ...

2006-05-09T14:34:00.000+10:00

Life seems to be heading back on track to the steadier pace I like it at, not the rush that the past few days have been.

I had a lovely day yesterday with Beth's class at Healesville Sanctuary . The weather held out and the children were really well behaved. Just the usual school excursion dramas of native birds stealing sandwiches from right out of small children's hands and someone's drink leaking all over most of the lunches, which didn't do too much damage. I was astounded (call me a prude) to discover the leaking drink in question was Coke! Who gives their five year old child Coke to take to a school excursion to drink? In fact, who gives their child Coke? Or in the rush that has been the past few days did I miss the World Health Organisation's bulletin on Coke being good for kids? What an eye opener.

The children were quite weary towards the end of the day and five of them fell asleep on the bus on the way back. Beth was one of them and I felt quite content knowing that she was relaxed enough to fall asleep. I rarely fall asleep on a plane and would never fall asleep on a train because I am just not secure with things that might go on around me. Obviously Beth felt safe and secure and just drifted off. And if you can raise a child who feels like that, you are part way there I guess. Either that or she was just exhausted.

One of my favourite things are parcels, preferably brown ones tied up with string, but a flat rate envelope jam packed with fabric from the States will suffice. Beautifully efficient service and sweet packaging from Sew Mama Sew saw these little beauties wind up in my letterbox yesterday.

The gingham is oilcloth. I have never sewed with it before but am up for the challenge. Have even purchased new size 16 needles for the sewing machine! I am going to use it to line some more of the little make-up purses. The other fabric will be used on the outside. I have my first piece of Denyse Schmidt Flea Market Fancy. More beautiful in real life. I could just look and feel all day. The gorgeous lime and bluey colour fabric is from the Girlfriends by Sis Boom range. I have a "thing" at the moment for peacocks on fabric and I had to have this one. The last piece is from the Moda Fruit Cocktail range. My long standing "thing" is for cherries. Can't resist them. They remind me of summer and being a child and making earings out of them.

Now to sewing that oilcloth ...

Yes Vs No ...

2006-05-03T14:22:00.000+10:00

After the euphoric Lynley Dodd high, life is back to normal. It's just that our normal is becoming more and more abnormal. Largely due to the fact that I cannot say No. Or I can, it's just that there are too many things that I like to say Yes to.

Alice is one of those things. She is a fridge raider and for the sake of peace or to give me more time doing what it is that I am doing at the time, I quite often say yes, that she can have whatever it is that she is asking for. Nine times out of ten, it is a cheese slice. Harmless really. Or yoghurt. It's just that now I am starting to question the volume of what she is snacking on, because meal time in our house is a nightmare. She won't sit at the table, what she liked yesterday, she doesn't like today, she wants the yellow bowl, but that really means the orange bowl. Beth says she wants Weet-Bix, so Alice now wants Weet-Bix too, even though she has just asked for and has been given a bowl of cornflakes. Blah, blah, blah.... Yes, I know, she is two, but get me out of here! As much and all as I love her to bits. Today this has been coupled with crying (her's not mine, but it has come close) which usually tells me that she may be coming down with something . Fingers crossed that she's not.

The other thing I can't say No to is anything to do with Beth's school. I am on the committee of the Parent's Association, which so far, has been quite good. Unlike the kindergarten committee last year. Suffice to say I learnt my lesson there and will NOT be doing that again. The annual Trivia Night is on this Saturday night so I have been doing a bit with that and it will only get busier between now and Saturday. I volunteered to go on the junior school excursion to Healsville Sanctuary on Monday, I have just completed the school's classroom helper course, so will be helping out in the classroom once a fortnight. Let's see, what else is there? Oh, yes, the Mother's Day stall next Friday which I also said I would help out with. I am looking forward to that one. All those children choosing presents for their Mum's with their two dollars. The decisions will be deliberated at length and they will be so proud of the little gifts they have chosen for their beautiful Mum's, along with their handmade cards and wrapping. That is what Mother's Day is all about. Not about the 23 junk mail catalogues that I got out of the letterbox this morning.

Why do I say Yes to all of these school things? I have been thinking about this and I think it's because I just want to be involved as much as I can in Beth's school years. And I really do enjoy it. Even though it is go, go, go. The alternative to this though is pretty boring. Who wants to stay at home all day? Who wants a perfectly clean house? Well me, but I'd rather be out doing other things.

I couldn't say No to Beth wearing a dress or a skirt to the school's free dress day tomorrow. I reasoned that jeans were far more practical and that most of the other girls would be in jeans, but no. So then I decided that this was the motivation I needed to make another skirt. Which I am pleased to say I have just finished. Will post more about this later.

The other thing I finished earlier this week was Beth's scarf. Quite happy with this one too. Looks very sweet on her too. Recognise the buttons?

And while I type, Alice is into the fridge again, but this time it's the Easter eggs .....

"Out of the gate and off for a walk..."

2006-05-01T22:24:00.000+10:00

Last week I was shopping at our local shopping centre and dropped into the ABC Shop and I saw a sign. Lynley Dodd, the author of the Hairy Maclary books, amongst others, would be in the shop today! OH MY GOODNESS. Apart from the fact that I have raised (and indeed am still raising) my girls on her stories, she holds a special place in my heart.

When I was pregnant with Beth, Hamish and I were living in New Zealand and at the time, there was an ad on TV for milk. In the ad, a variety of parents were reading "Hairy Maclary from Donaldson's Dairy" to their children before they went to bed, while having their evening glass of milk. Each parent and child were filmed reading a different line. It was beautiful at the best of times, but when you are pregnant with your first child ... I wanted our future to be like the Anchor Milk ad. I wanted to read Hairy Maclary to my child each night before bed, while having a glass of milk. I immediately went out and bought this book, the first ever book I bought for my children.

Today was "meant to be" because Beth's school had a curriculum day so she had no school. Lynley (we're on first name basis now) was due to appear at 3.30 pm, which would have been difficult with school pick-up etc, but no. We had no problems at all with being there.

The shop was also running a colouring competition. Beth LOVES colouring sheets that you pick up in shops. They are never competitions as such because they always just draw out a name, rather than judge. Which for me, is great, but for Beth, who loves nothing better than to win (comes from her father) it is a tragedy. Nonetheless, the girls completed their masterpieces.

This is Alices. Apparently she has drawn "Slinky Malinky". If you look carefully, you can see the likeness. Keep looking ...

This is Beth's. Beth's drawings always have flowers.

I especially like the birds!

So off we went, complete with our five books to have signed. We stood in the queue, met up with one of Beth's little school friends and his Mum, they all ran around, and I felt very nervous. Strange really. Would I have felt this nervous if Jamie Oliver was signing my cookbook? Possibly not. Although I do like Jamie and all his pukkaness, he is not a part of my life like Lynley. I wanted to blurt out to her all the stories about the milk ad, and that her book was the first book I ever bought for my children and how we love the stories and the girls can end every line. And then there is "The Apple Tree".

Ordinarily, I would have had a little pride and not started talking like a crazed stalking fan, but I just couldn't help myself. She was lovely, and I started talking and we actually had a great conversation. I told her about the milk ad, she said she remembered it well because people thought it was an ad for her books and not milk. She chatted with the girls about their favourite dogs and cats. And then we had "The Apple Tree" conversation.

The illustrations in this book are just beautiful. Which is one reason we love it, but the other is that the girl in the story's name is Beth. We have so many books with Alice's, but no Beth's. We would borrow it from the library and kinder, but I had never seen it to buy it. When I investigated, I found out it's because it is not being published separately anymore and has now been released as "The Apple Tree and other stories". And could I find it so as we could get it signed? No. So I have ordered it and Lynley was kind enough to sign to Beth on a sheet of paper which I will then stick into the book. Then she told Beth that the story was based on her children, Michael and Elizabeth, but that she changed Elizabeth's name to Beth for the story. Beth was enchanted. So with six signings and a lovely chat, we were off, but not before a photo.

How much do I love this photo? No photo has ever summed up my daughter's personalities more than this. Beth is showing just how seriously she takes something like this. And Alice, well, there is that photo smile again.

Beth said to me that she thinks we took the longest time of anyone there. I think she may have been right. We all walked away with big smiles on our faces. And between you and me, mine was the biggest.

Heathen Quilter's Unite!

2006-04-29T15:57:00.000+10:00

Sometimes you read a post on someone's blog and it just strikes such a chord with you. That happened to me the other week when I read Alison's post, "The Heathen Quilter, Part 1". I stood up to be counted as a heathen quilter and one day, I will show you why, but not today.

Part of the subsequent discussions I had with Alison, which were very funny, by the way, led to discussions regarding fabric/quilting/sewing/crafty type shops and the genre of people who frequent them. For the sake of political correctness, I will call them "traditionalist's".

We have a local shop and the lady in there has come to know me and my strange requests and she is now very helpful. She even lets my girls play with the buttons. Which I have come to be extremely appreciative of.
I had a visit there this morning and came home with the following little treasures.

I love these little buttons. The green one's remind me of depression glass, or uranium glass. Horrid name for something so pretty. My Mum has a footed cake plate that all our birthday cakes went on that looks exactly like the larger green buttons. Perhaps that's why I like them so much? More about what I am going to do with them later.

My next find was this pretty ric-rac. It's quite textured and I thought it would make a great trim for the remaining skirts I have to make.

This is the fabric for those skirts. Beth has a "free dress" day at school this week. The conversation went something like this. "Beth, you have free dress day on Thursday". "I'm wearing a skirt". Beth is very pro dresses and skirts. Which as much as I love, there are days where skirts are just not appropriate and trying to get her into a pair of jeans is a major battle. So guess what I am doing this week ?

Anyway, buttons and ric-rac. I was very happy with my purchase from my little shop that is more widely known for its ribbon embroidery and decorative folk art painting classes undertaken by the "traditionalists". I search high and low in there for fabric that I like, but never the twain shall meet.

However, I have had a fantastic find this week. Sew Mama Sew is an on-line store that opened for business last November. Kristin has been very helpful in giving me hints on how to sew oilcloth. I have never sewn with it before and am thinking of expanding on the make-up purses and lining them with oilcloth, for all those nasty make-up spillages. My only dilemma now is what to choose. And I'm sure Sew Mama Sew would welcome any Heathen Quilter's.

"Catty on a Swing" & "I Like to Sing" ...

2006-04-27T13:35:00.000+10:00

Today is such a beautiful Autumn day. Crisp and a little cool in the morning and a glorious sunny afternoon. It was such a lovely morning that when Alice asked if she could wear "Catty on a Swing", I couldn't say no. "Catty on a Swing" is a t-shirt and if you ever ask Alice what she would like to wear, the answer is always "Catty on a Swing". So here she is, outside the cubby house, with her favourite "Catty on a Swing". She is holding our newest CD, "I Like to Sing" by Justine Clarke. Justine is one of our favourites on "Playschool". Although, I must admit I am a bit partial to Jay myself. We love the film clip for "I Like to Sing" so much that we bought the CD. Only disappointment being that Alice thinks that everything that is on CD is a DVD, and she wanted to watch Justine, not just listen. And she was tired, and she is two and need I say more? I am sitting here listening to it and enjoying every minute of it. If you are Wiggled out, I highly recommend Justine for a refreshing change.

If you are wondering why I would put a photo of Alice pulling a face like this in my post, then let me explain. This is her photo face. It is really very, very difficult to get anything other than a face like this. She automatically says "turkey" and scrunches up her nose. She is into sunglasses in a big way too, but these ones keep sliding down her face, another reason for the scrunched up nose.

But low and behold, she went inside the cubby house and I managed this one.

Still a little scrunchy, but a minor miracle nonetheless.

I finished something ....

2006-04-26T13:59:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I finished all the little make-up purses for the school Mother's Day Stall. I was actually quite happy with how they looked. They are made entirely from my scraps of fabric and wading. It was fun co-ordinating the outer fabric with the lining and the tie.

Of course, I have my favourites.

And this is what they look like inside with the lining.
I hope they make some Mum's happy on Mother's Day.

Crafts from a time gone by ....

2006-04-24T16:21:00.000+10:00

Last week Hamish bought home "MX" which is the free newspaper that is distributed at the train stations in the city in Melbourne. He used to catch the train to work every day when he worked in the city. Sadly, the highlight of my day was when he walked through the door of an evening and casually tossed me my "MX" which I grabbed like a child scrambling for lollies. He had to go into town for a meeting last Thursday and as a very special treat, he came home and handed me the "MX". It's the little things in life that keep me happy.
Each day they have an interview column called "The Mad Minute". Being a Mum who really doesn't get out to trendy Brunswick for my shopping, I had never heard of Chitra Mangma and her boutique "Chitra's Closet". I may just be admitting that I am way out of things, I'm not sure. Nonetheless, the interview last Thursday was with Chitra and I just had to recount her answer to one of the questions:
MX - "What's next for you?"
Chitra - "A little fashion empire - I want an office building with a tea room and a room where women can learn to be creative. I'd like to build up and encourage a community where crafts like knitting and embroidery are learnt and practiced again. It's a pity we don't have much time for this any more".
I really loved this. I think of the things that my grandmother's and great aunts used to create and I wonder how they had the time to sit and do them. Was it because they lived in an era when these kind of crafts were valued? Not that they aren't valued now, maybe just looked upon in a different way. I am starting to notice though that things may be starting to come full circle. Perhaps my girls will sit in our drawing room embroidering supper cloths before going off to nightclubs?

Lazy Sunday Afternoon ...

2006-04-23T16:41:00.000+10:00

Here is the famous skirt. I was originally looking for patterned pinwale cord, but couldn't find it, so settled on the pink and bought it. Later that day, I ended up finding four different patterned cords. So I bought a metre of each. As you do. Which reminds me that I should have added that to my list of unfinished projects. Four more skirts. Anyway, because it was so plain, I wanted to jazz it up with some trim. Which ended up costing more than the fabric, but made what would have been a very ordinary skirt, something a little less ordinary.

Beth and I sat down this afternoon and put together her first letter for her pen friend. Otilija is Kath's daughter. Kath posted about wanting a girl about six years old for Otilija to swap letters and bits and pieces with. Beth is six in July and I thought that she would really like this. It was lovely to sit down with her this afternoon and put her letter together. I asked her if there was anything else she would like to make. She has in the past taken pieces of my scraps and asked if she could sew pictures onto them. So, this is what she said she would like to do. And here is the finished product, entitled "Tree". The little package will be winging it's way off to Canberra as soon as I can manage the enormous task of buying a stamp.

A ray of sunshine, or two...

2006-04-22T23:27:00.000+10:00

I really wanted to take some photos of Beth's new skirt today, but, yet again, it was so dark and gloomy that I just couldn't get a decent photo. There was one point though in the day when the girls were drawing when the sun broke through and I just had to take shots of these.

The first one is Beth's. It is a drawing of a princess in her house. Note the purple walls, the princess bed, the apple mobile hanging from the roof and the cupcakes on the little table. Beth loves to draw and her drawings often blow us away.
The second is Alice's. She is at the age where whatever Beth does, she must do too. When I was taking the photo of Beth's drawing she insisted that I take one of her's, and rightly so. I even managed to get her gorgeous little two year old hand in the shot.

Beth did wear her skirt to the birthday party today and not one person asked if I made it. Which I actually take as a good sign. That means it looks "like a bought one". On one hand, it does defeat the purpose of me having made it, but it on the other, it means that it could almost be looking hand made. As opposed to home made. Which is great for jam, not so great for skirts.

And, I managed to get the photo in the header. Only took me three hours. I took it over Easter last week at my mother-in-law's at Mossiface. In East Gippsland, Victoria, just out of Bruthen. Speaking of jam, Beth and I picked the basket of quinces to make some.

Starting with some unfinished business ...

2006-04-21T13:33:00.000+10:00

First of all, I have to say that setting up this blog was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. So I am a little happier with "the look" but still not completely. I'll learn as I go.

Where to start? Well, seeing as I am doing this primarily because I enjoy making "things", I thought perhaps I should list all the projects I am currently working on. Then as I work on them and finish them, I can share all the triumphs and many tragedies. And as most of my crafting work is done late at night when my girls (and husband) have gone to bed, as a consequence, there will be lots and lots of tragedies. I also figure that if I actually document what I am doing, I will realise that, a. I need to stop starting so many things and b. if it has been documented, I have to finish it.

So here goes.

The quilt for Hamish and my bed. I fell in love with the Amy Butler "Ginger Bliss" range of fabric when it was first released. So I bought the fabric, looked at and played with it for six months, cut it out and arranged and rearranged it for three, sewed it up overnight, cheated and sent it off to be machine quilted and now I admire it, without it's binding. I have been doing this for seven months now. It is a labour of love.

The photo is a bit dark (something else I am going to have to learn all about). It is such a dark day here today that I am going to blame my lack of photographic skill on the weather. But you can see the lovely frayed wadding edges beautifully. And, I just had to show that backing fabric. Now that was one of my triumphs. $1 a metre from Spotlight in a sale. Just standing in the line and waiting with my number 47 (they were calling 14 when I joined) for an hour and having people look at my giant bolt of fabric with a "What the hell is she going to do with that hideous 70's throwback fabric" was worth every cent of the dollar a metre I paid for it.
A cot quilt for Alice. The really sad part about this is that a few weeks ago, she went into a bed. Or as we call it around here, "a big girls bed". I am in the midst of hand quilting it. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
A quilt for Alice's "big girls bed". This is at the idea in my head stage. I think I will go for 30's repro/feedsack fabric in greens and purples.
27 little make-up bags for Beth's school's Mother's Day Stall. You'll be pleased to know these are nearly finished. I might even get them done this weekend.
A scarf for Beth. Almost done, minus the embellishments. Every nearly six year old girl needs flowers with sparkly button centres on her scarf.
My latest and I must say, very exciting, project. A square for Nichola's "Wall of Yarn" gallery. Exciting, because it only has to measure 15 X 15cm and it shouldn't take me that long. Should it ? No, exciting because it will be great to take part in something so collaborative and in a small way, have my first piece of craft on show. Thank you Nichola for such an inspired idea.

On a positive note, which is always a good way to end, I did make a skirt for Beth this week. Yes, I started it and finished it all in 2 days. I will take a photo of that soon with her in it. She is off to a birthday party tomorrow and funnily enough, is quite keen to wear it. I haven't quite figured that one out yet. Could it be that she genuinely likes it?

OK, so I give in!

2006-04-11T16:56:00.000+10:00

I have lurked for far too long. And increasingly it seems that I need a blog. For a crafty, internet loving woman of the 2000's, it's akin to not having a mobile phone, a DVD player and so on, to put it in lay man's terms. So here I am. Bear with me. I am trying to work this thing out, so if things go to plan, everytime you check back, this page will look different until I am happy with it. Which knowing me, could take a year.

So, I take a deep breath, and here I go ......