Joseph is eight

Eight times around the sun, Happy Birthday my sweet gentle boy.



Ten things you might not know about Joseph:

If he could paint himself invisible he would.

Knows instinctively what people are thinking.

Prefers people to think that he knows nothing about anything, he even has his teacher fooled.

Loves to paint

Loves to make

Loves a cup of tea,

Prefers the company of meercat and scruffy (kitten and dog)

Loves rice pudding, and stirring the other children.

Would love to own his own canoe,

needed two hours in the bath by himself after his birthday party, I'm guessing to reflect.

Looks like me

In the Weekly Times

Well, I forgot to mention that I now have a walk in shop, called Gathering, with two other lovely ladies, Lisa and Louise:)
We have a write up in the Weekly times, you can find it here.

Winter soltiste

The night was as still as can be, all the stars were twinkling in the night sky. There was much excitement in all the quietness.

Thoughts for the day

::wondering where three weeks of school holidays have gone.
::feeling that my head has been in the clouds for most of that time.
::accepting that sometimes, you can't be fully present.
::happy that we are all together as a family.
::loving this song right now.
::smiling at the sun today:)
::grateful for friends and their act's of kindness,
::wishing that Flynn will get a spot at school soon.....
::living out of pure trust.
::knowing that change is apart of life,
::learning to let go.

warm clothes

Jim needed some warm casual clothes, made from thick cotton fleece, from Hilco in germany, I don't think I've put it in the shop yet....

I think I just get away with this ribbon, I wonder how long he will let me make his clothes, at the moment he is very proud of the fact.

another reason why I love castlemaine

I'm at 1.30 in a red dress at the back with the kiddo's.
How many supermarkets does this happen at?.

Alice's party dress

I made this dress for last summer, and now it's autumn, and I'm posting it. Am I the only one who forget's their blog?, yet I want it as a journal of our lives, of my crafty adventures, but I'm so hit and miss. I wonder if I took the challenge of posting everyday for a month, I wonder if I would better at it, that daily rhythmn.

Back to the dress, I was making the feliz dress today, in a rush, thinking that we are going to a bush dance this weekend at Campbells creek, and thought that Alice needed a twirly dress for the occasion. Then I remembered that I had this one, and put the feliz in the corner and went and jumped on the trampoline with the kiddo's.

Back to the dress, beautiful sky blue clipped voile, with an underskirt in a brighter blue. Fully smocked front, and meters of lace, silk ribbon and pin tucks.
What more could a girl want:)

More of Molly

Alice is still in love with Molly, when I look at Molly, I smile, which is a very good thing, usually I only notice all the areas that I could improve on, which means that they them spend a lot of time on my sewing table.

And then I 'm unsure what to do, because really, they have developed their own look and way, because of the love the child gives them, I then wonder what to do. If I try to fix them how I see they should be, there's a chance that my child would say what has happened to "Tom".

I wonder what other people do.


Molly's clothes fabrics came right out of my shop, and the shoe pattern is from saartjes booties,
Alice had a pair when when was born.
Sadly Saartjes doesn't post anymore, put her blog is still open.

Which brings me to another thought. I love this blogging world, people opening up, talking about stuff they wouldn't share with their neighbours. You actually feel a closeness with your fellow blogger.

And then they stop.

No warning, no goodbye,

They just don't exist in your world anymore, you can't ring them up or knock on their door, just to check that they're still alive....

And then I grieve, first I'm worried, then sad, then hurt, that they think it's alright to just stop. where would the blogging world be without their readers?

Some Mama's have revolutionize the idea of stay at home mums. There is always impact.

Imagine if this happened in amongst your circle of 'real' friends.

There has to be give and take, there has to be understanding.

Meet Molly

Last year I signed up to do a virtual doll-making class with Juliane over at froken-skicklig, and even though I had made dolls before, I was nervous...... We had to commit to 7hours a week for 4 weeks. I think I took five.

Even though it was intense, I learnt so much, Juliane, really "sees" them, and thinks outside the square.




Molly is of good proportion, she sits unaided, has a life-sized head, and she loves piggy-backs

.

Afternoon tea in the garden.


I'm so glad I finished Molly, I was planning on giving Molly to Alice for her fourth birthday later this year. But Alice took such an interest in me making her, carrying around just the head, then the limbs, and watching intently as a sewed her features, that I couldn't place poor Molly in the present cupboard for six months, how gloomy that would be for Molly.
p.s the next post, will be more of molly.......

A boy's best friend

I actually make Flynn's little friend a while ago, I'm big on making, not posting.



This is our wool from our sheep. It's as soft as soft. The chocolate brown is from our two precious, but disobedient brown sheep.


The pattern, is from Alan Dart, he is a UK designer, I love his patterns, they are detailed but very easy to follow, and work everytime.
Take a look at these mice........ might be a easter/autumn project......too cute!

the last of summer

Long three day weekend, called for a beach break down at lorne, we were so lucky with the weather, I can count on one hand how many sunny weekends we have had this summer.

But, really, I would prefer rain over searing heat and bushfires.



This one, loving catching those waves.



Happy for a speed ride.




the last of summer.

Clearing

It's time to make our weekday house more like home, to make it ours. we decided some of our trees needed to go.
and before you gasp! not real trees like oaks, cedars or elms, I'd move a house before I'd remove those trees, just prunus plums and fortinias and cypress.


The lorax.....



I love this little village we live in, and so do the children, I've lived half my life in a town that would now be called a city, but at the time I didn't see it that way.

The country life is in my blood, and even though I tried and succeeded in creating my own bit of paradise in the city,what was missing was community. The people here are engaged, they are strong and dynamic, and I love it.

the community truck.

The gathering apron's

This little pixie, who never conform's, decided to come up with his own way to wear the apron's, which actually worked.




They are great for collecting apple's, eggs, lavender, anything really, and when undone, perfect for kneeling on when gardening.



Thankyou Sarah over at cottage at frog creek for your free tutorial.

money raised

Well, what an incredible community of crafty women, one I feel very proud to be part of, who would have thought we could raise nearly $100,000.

paul kelly is right, from little things, big things grow.

Take a look at this moving tribute to Jordan Rice, who lost lost his life to save his younger brother, who couldn't swim. And to everyone else who has endured hardships as a result of these floods.

Thankyou Jimbo and Aimee for writing this song and sharing.

blueberry picking

Well it's close to 40degrees today, we have not had much of a summer, but today in the heat we decided to go blueberry picking.



It actually was cooler in around the bushes.



Tomorrow, I will post about how useful these gathering apron's are.

Jim picked over three kilo's, I said maybe next year he could get a job as a picker.

Those yearly rituals, how the children look forward to them with much delight.

in the mail

Look what arrived in the mail for me today, aren't those button-brooches so sweet.

The illustrations are done by Mandy Sutcliffe and her shop is belle&boo. Look at those faces, I could just squish them!

With the pound so good at the moment for us Aussie shoppers, I also bought some of her beautiful clothing, I will take photo's of miss alice in her coat soon.

And more exciting news, I just started making my( okay alice's) doll through a virtual classroom with the lovely Juliane over at froken skicklig, her dolls are amazing, they truly seem to come to life, it's like they are whispering come play with me.

As soon as she's done you'll get to meet her.

the winners

Tamara, quilary and melisa, you have all won, I will email you all tonight with details.
Thankyou everyone for digging deep, If you missed out on your bid you still have time to enter into a raffle, click on the link for queensland floods victims, and it will take you to a list of participating bloggers.

Open for business

It's open, finally, my new fabric shop bloom fine fabrics and trims.

The plan was to have a shop at our house, we have a big house, and so the dinning room and sitting room with it's big beautiful arch window would be the place. I got a beautiful cypress long table made by my good friend Andrew, also lovely white armchairs, to sink into whilst getting inspired, and shelving made to house the fabrics.

The plan was to do sewing retreats, where people come for a morning or a full day, to learn how to make a girls twirly skirt, corduroy pant's for a boy, kid's backpack, ladies peasant blouse, etc, because what I have noticed over the years, is that there are lot's of people who would like to sew, but lack the condfidence to actually 'do it'.

There would be homemade cakes for morning tea, out on the verandah, over looking the garden, and I imagined lot's of chatter, with show and tell, and sewing.

Then I thought, if it went well, I would shift it to the woolshed, and my thoughts went dreaming of how I could do up the woolshed.....

Well the week before opening, we had quickly, but not hastily, decided that the children needed to go to another school, and the school we had decided on was an hour away.

Which means, that we needed to find some where to live during the week. For the last six months, it's been hard to find inner quietness, my mind has had so many thoughts to deal with.

sigh, and of course my shop would have to go on hold.

So while enjoying our summer holiday's here(In one place), I thought I would revisit the idea of a shop again, at the moment it will be an online shop, and hopefully one day a bricks and mortar shop.

I love fabrics, and this idea came about because there is lack of beautiful fabrics for apparel sewing(well, where I live). Some quilting fabric is fine, it depends on the application, but to make a blouse or flowing dress you need drape & width.

I also decided that I was not going to buy anything made in china, because of child and slave labour, which means I had to source fabric elsewhere.

What some fabric companies are doing is inspiring, where heading in the right direction.

There's free postage within Australia.

May these fabrics inspire you.

footnote: The queensland flood auction ending time has been put forward, it will now close at 9.00pm monday night.

Queensland flood relief auctions

This week, we have watched with tears in our eyes, of the dreadful flood crisis that engulfed south east Queensland and Brisbane.

So much death and destruction. It's heartbreaking.

Click on the link for a moving tribute gallery of the Queensland flood disaster.

A group of creative women in the blog world have launched a flood refief auction, that runs for one week and will finish on monday 24th at midnight.

Up for auction from my new shop - bloom, is one metre of fabric and one metre of ribbon of your choice.

The three highest bidders will each recieve 1 metre each of fabric and ribbon.

Postage is free in Australia, and capped at $6.00 for international winners. The postage is an donation as well, so if overseas, please add the postage amount to your donation.

how this auction works:

You can place a bid by leaving a comment, please include your email address.
Your bid must be in whole dollar increments.
At the close of auction, I will contact the three winners. The winners will pay the winning amount directly into:
Premiers disaster relief appeal and send me proof of payment via email.

You can see more wonderful auctions by clicking the flood appeal button on the right hand side of this screen.

Thankyou for your generosity.

Queensland flood relief auctions, ribbon, part 1

1. woven ribbon from Europe. 15mm, love and peace ribbon, design by luzia pimpinella

2. woven ribbon from Europe. 15mm, my favourite ribbon, little red riding hood. design by luzia pimpinella

3. woven ribbon from europe, 16mm, eastwind, this band is inspired by the colours of the world. design by luzia pimpinella.

4. woven ribbon from Europe. 15mm, perfect for soccer fans, design by hamburger lieber

5. woven ribbon from europe. 15mm, gumboot's, umbrella's and mouse's adorn this ribbon, design by mymaki