Holiday Treasures

We spent a wind-swept four days at Victor Harbour to start off the school holidays in proper holiday mode for a change... Travelled down in two cars so the man of the house could get back to work on Monday and I could stay on a bit longer with the little guy.


We went whale-watching every day, sometimes twice a day, and were extremely excited to see whales on three occasions!!! As an adult, I feel a bit saddened that there are so few things to be truly excited about anymore - this kinda made up for that!! I was jumping around like a silly thing, while 12yr old watched me warily, checking that noboby else had noticed my behaviour...
Come on though - we were 50 metres from a WHALE!!! How often does that happen?!?


Another highlight was investigating the little old main street of Port Elliot. We found junk shops, book shops, cake shops and a shop that was all three in one! Paradise!!

I bought this...

and these (the bundle for $3 - bargain!!)...


and several treasures from Little Bird at Elliot, which comes highly recommended!

When we got back to our house, instead of doing the studying I'd planned, I made more of these...

I guess you could say it was a pretty productive few days - for a holiday!

Wish you could smell these....

I've been trying to buy stocks for 3 weeks now...
I'm always the customer AFTER they sell the last bunch.

The manchild got in the car not knowing I'd been flower-shopping and asked what the gingerbread smell was!!! I never thought of it, but they really do smell like gingerbread!

P is away in Las Vegas for 2 weeks, so I've been keeping myself
entertained in the evenings... it's starting to wear thin! I resorted to tidying cupboards last night.
(See - anything can be a distraction from writing essays.
Particularly now we have a six week extension!!!)

Buried in the depths, I found a stack of my grandma's old teacups. Last Boxing Day she had all the girls in the family over to choose from a selection of her treasures, so she could see what we loved while she is still around!



Apart from these pretties, my other favourite possession now is a fabulous 1950s swan vase - something I have adored since childhood.



Even on the interwebs, I have not seen another one as beautiful. And I also got some turkey salt and pepper shakers... apparently there's kitsch and then there's UGLY! (sorry for the crappy photo)



And while we're talking bird collections, here's my latest treasure. It's my treat for staying behind and NOT having a drinking, gambling holiday!

And more brooches.....

I think these are becoming a habit... HELP!!!!
This is the latest crocheted flower brooch - attached to my latest UFO, a Burda coat which I was certain would be amazing if I made it out of vintage curtain fabric. How wrong could I be!?!
While I still love the colours of the fabric, I have seriously lost interest in the whole coat idea. Maybe if it was shorter. And if I painted out the vast expanses of cream background... Next winter perhaps!

Then there is the beginning of the 'Small Furry Animals' range (as suggested by the man-child). He's partly correct - I do have an array of felt animals cut out on the ironing board, but I don't consider moose either small nor fluffy.



And a couple of views from the sewing room...


Much of my art from the last 8-10 years has focussed on the idea home and having a place in the world that is uniquely yours... The little houses are made from stitched gingham, copying designs from some of the handmade aprons in my (unnecessarily large) collection. The other two houses are made out of lino from my friend Carol's kitchen floor... complete with splashes of paint and grime from 50 years worth of daily life. Wish I'd known how to crochet when I made them.


And this is Ma-mee. My grandmother won her in a raffle in 1950, but only had sons, so luckily, as first grandaughter, she became my friend. Originally she walked when coaxed, and said "ma-mee" when tipped upside down, but going in the bath put an end to that :(
The even has a complete wardrobe of the most beautifully handcrafted clothes - a pleated tartan skirt, an eyelet blouse, pyjamas and underwear. I love her, even though she has a tendency to freak out friends who stay in her room...

Oh, My Broochy Goodness!

More Brown Owls last night - my fortnightly inspiration fix!!
However, as usual, at the last minute I decide NOT to do more crocheting (nobody in the house can think of anything else they want made...), so I hurriedly went through my little book of make and do ideas for - you guessed it - IDEAS!!!
I found some dodgy birdcage drawings I had started to do for a pair of custom Keds, and realised they would be rather fancy as brooches instead! And so far, so good...


My latest brooches seem to be verging on the larger side... I guess, given that I have no plans for selling them, they only have to appeal to me at this point though. And I do love a gigantic brooch!!! This one is about 8 cm x 5cm at its widest bits.

And then, beacuse I have the attention span of a gnat, I made this little girly.
She's only 4.5 x 3.5cm - much tinier!



I would like to start planning things to sell at the Goodwood Christmas Market - likely be brooches... Any feedback would be fabulous!!
After last Brown Owls, where lots of girls were making crocheted flower brooches, I attempted my own pattern, and came up with something wearable after only 4 disasters!


I wore it to school today and got many positive comments from teenagers...
who'd have thought, hey!?

I'm looking forward to my mum visiting Adelaide this weekend... might get her to this weekends Goodwood market if her and little sis don't have other plans. Sunday I'm off to the Gilles Street Market with one of my beautifully talented Year 12 students from last year. Can't wait for the weekend!!!

Ooh, and while I think of it... check out the loveliness at Shelbyville.
Particularly her Etsy shop... another addiction of mine!!

Addictive personality? You be the judge!

Our last couple of weeks have been a flurry of planes, buses and automobiles...
just missed out on including trains, too. School holidays have never been less relaxing!
For all the hectic-ness, we have had a lot of fun visiting 2 sets of grandparents and a pair of great grandparents in two states - spent a lot of time drinking tea, looking at photo albums and hearing lovely stories from them all.

Since last my Brown Owls meet about 3 weeks ago, I have become seriously stuck on crocheting - learning a couple of stitches other than chain seems to have inspired me an incredible amount!!
In this short time, I have finished 3 cowls, a pair of wrist warmers, 2 scarves and several randomly shaped bits and pieces as I experiment with shaping! Crochet is the medium for me... I enjoy the process of knitting, but am truly terrible at it, so I'm stoked to have found an alternative!

The black curly scarf is a lovely soft mohair from the Bendigo Woollen Mill.
It took me a bit to get used to the open fibres, but after persevering (9 hours on the bus to Victoria!!!) I was an expert. At least I spent SOME of my school holidays doing something for me!
Finished length is about 180cm, and it has quickly become my new favourite accessory!

The stripy scarf was whipped up in a couple of nights for my son to take on his scout camp, when we heard the temperature was going to be colder than expected.
This pic is post-camp, so ignore any unpleasant nasties that I failed to pick off it!!
He chose the colours for it based on one square of a (genuine-made-by-a-granny) granny rug he was given by his great-grandma during our visit.

I have been attempting to make flower brooches, stubbornly without instructions...
I was thrilled to see at Brown Owls next week we can learn! Serendipity! Just as my frustration levels were peaking, too! The colours are scraps - not necessarily wearable.

We visited Morisset on Lake Macquarie and were lucky to find a bunch* of op shops!
If I had the room in my luggage, I could easily have bought (for the princely sum of $10) an entire BOX of gorgeous men's patterns from the 60s and 70s!!! Oh the sadness at leaving those behind!
The illustrations alone were a barrel of laughs!
This one made it home, though!! Not sure if the big or little fella will benefit from it yet, although they are almost the same size now anyway...

*Some discussion on our way home to Adelaide... IS a group of op shops actually a 'bunch'?? Maybe a naphthalum of op shops... or even just an opportunity of shops (the 12yr old's suggestion!!)
PS: Apparently naphthalene is a sublime substance. For real!!! A million, trillion nannas can't be wrong!

Hey Dollface!

Spending a weekend home on my own was meant to be fun - it was something I've been looking forward to for weeks. But then I got a miserable cold (it is the end of term...) and was bored and lonely without my two boys home.

I managed to get a little bit creative between nose wipes...

Recently I was reminded of the joys of drinking tea from a teapot, however I was desperately in need of a tea cosy. A pot of tea drunk by one goes cold mighty quick!

I used my favourite patternmaking technique (plastic bag and masking tape) to make a rough pattern for my favourite teapot and voila!


Without the flowery covering, it looked a lot like something a hobbit would wear, but I am pretty pleased with the final outcome. And, best of all, it works.

During last week I also had a go at making a Black Apple doll, having seen some beautiful girlies made by some of the Brown Owls. Thanks Tracey Brown Owl for the link!
I love love love Emily Martin's illustration style!!

I really like leaving dolls with very simple features, so just went with eyes for this one. Her name is Tsubi, and she is going to be our next Toy Society drop. Not too sure where she'll be left yet - maybe outside the local Community Centre.

Busy, busy, busy!!!

At our first Adelaide Brown Owls meet last Wednesday (which was terrific!!!), I finished this little matroyska brooch, with a whole bunch of other designs in mind. I really enjoy working with felt - it is so forgiving and has that lovely folksy feel about it.
One of the Brown Owl prefects had brought in an old owl embroidery design for us to work on...
I decided I would love it more if it was tiny, so this is my little fella!


Anyway, it would seem that I truly have the felt brooch bug (better than swine flu anyday!)...

I made some of these flowers-

and some of these flowers-

and have now started making a series of these silhouette brooches- a little bigger than I normally wear, but I love the drama of them!!

...and I also bought the book, Sew What! Skirts for work ;) and spent the weekend
being inspired by it (and this great fabric!!)

The book is aimed at beginners, but has some lovely ideas about design details, and really simplifies the pattern-making process, which is perfect for my students at school. They want fabulous-looking, but without having to learn too many skills... this is perfect!

And finally - today I bumped into this sweet book. The Kitchen Linen Book.
It not only has lovely references to all types of linen and the history of these things, but people's stories about their favourite pieces, recipes, tips on inviting friends for lunch, how to make the perfect cup of tea, and so on! And one image features a pair of turkey salt and pepper shakers which I just happen to own as well! See - fate made me buy it!!!