Swapping my Janome for a Drill

 

Today I swapped my sewing machine for a drill and I made a swing. A bit of timber, a few bits of rope and the right drill bit, half an hour later - ta da! a swing. I am very tempted to make a cute cushion to put on top of the seat.

Sculptures by the Sea

sculpture made from kids plastic toys - amazing

Last Sunday morning we packed our sunnies and sunscreen and headed down to Cottesloe for Sculptures by the Sea. It is fantastic for kids and it was warm enough for a swim in the Ocean.
I took a few snaps of my favourite sculptures, it was the brightly coloured ones that caught my eye this time, and Lucy's.

Must be Love

 

We adopted Reggie six months ago and have loved him from the day we picked him up. He has taken a little while to adapt to life in the city after being found in a rabbit trap but he has found his place in the world - hanging out with Lucy. She adores him and when he is not tearing around the house chasing imaginary mice he is snoozing on the rug in the living room. He is a very happy cat.

Sunday Morning Is...

cupcakes for friends

Good Maple Syrup - thanks Auntie K

my new pancake pan

 

blueberries

Happy Lucy

Monday is Funday

 

Monday is my favourite day of the week. I get to spend the morning having a nice breakfast with Lucy before she goes to school and then I get six blissful hours to myself doing what ever I please.

Today I met my bestie for Lunch and we did a spot of shopping and catching up on a bit of goss and generally having a good laugh about the situations we find ourselves in sometimes.

 

We met at Calico & Ivy (a favourite haunt) and sifted through piles of fabric thinking what we could make. Then onto lunch at Hubbles Yard in East Freo and a wander through the shops. I bought a stunning evening dress with the hope that one night I will get to wear it... must be a ball or wedding coming up soon... surely.



Holidays are Bliss

Spectacular Bruny Island

Bruny Island Cheese Co. Tom cheese is divine

Mums Pud - complete with silver

Letterboxes of Abels Bay Road

Mussels at Abels Bay

The day before Christmas our computer crashed and I realised tonight that I had not blogged a few snippets from our trip to Tasmania and Victoria this Christmas.

Every second year we head to Tassie for Christmas to see my family and pop into Mt Macedon in Victoria on the way home to visit great friends. This year we went to Bruny Island for the day and went on the fast boat tour down as far as the Southern Ocean. Wind blowing against our faces, rain and sunshine all in a couple of hours. The scenery was spectacular, the seals smelly and our tour guide was lots of fun. Home to my parents for warm tea, mussels picked out the front and my Mum's Christmas Pud. A perfect day after a wonderful Christmas.

On to Victoria and we are spoilt by Genz and Paul with glorious food and a beautiful garden to relax in. It is pure joy to spend time at 'Snowflakes' in the company of creative friends.

Genz crepes are SO yum.

Milestones & Coudy Apple

The Kindy year has gone... a milestone for my little one. We celebrated a fantastic fun year at Kindy in style with coffee and a big cloudy apple juice at our favourite cafe, Mrs S.

Lucy's bag was loaded with things she had made, ABC cards, Christmas wishes from from friends and piles of glitter from the mound of craft projects. We waved goodbye to friends we may not see at the big school and hugged the teachers for all their hard work.

An exciting year ahead of five days a week and I gather... homework.

Crafting & Birthdays

Waiting for cake

Gorgeous Birthday cakes

Crafty Space

A big weekend of birthday parties, family events and preparing for our trip to Tassie next week. Lucy has been tucked away in her crafting space, painting, sticking, gluing and making the most of her crafty space.

I have been finishing off projects, deciding what my list of projects for next year is going to be and thinking that it about time to get creative and start my own Etsy Store... 2013 could be a big year or a big year of coming up with ideas.

Handmade Decorations

I was lucky to be part of a gorgeous Christmas Ornament Swap this year, a tradition that I hope will carry on. My beautiful ornament from Catherine arrived in the mail and now has a special place on my tree. A very clever idea of using Japanese paper on top of felt, then crocheting the cherries and leaves.

Lucy and I have been putting random favourite handmade ornaments around the house. They get moved occasionally or Lucy likes to stash them in her room because they are so 'precious'.

Something that has been driving me mad this year is occasionally when I select a picture to put onto a post, it comes in the wrong way round, or upside down. I have no idea how to fix this. The picture looks normal in my editing tool.. can anyone help? does this happen to you, or do I have a gremlin in my blog.

Working On...

A cushion using a gorgeous panel from Megumi Sakakihara which is so gorgeous. Combining it with Liberty flowers and applique. Not sure if I can stop at one of these cushions (I do have a pink panel too).

A little bag for a small boy, full of marbles

Cutting up Lucy's clothes that no longer fit, for a keepsake quilt.

Miniature stockings for little surprises

trying to stick to one project at a time... not working

Coffee and Pie

With Lucy recovering from her operation we have spent a lot of time at home, which calls for cooking and pretending our kitchen is a cafe. We made chicken pies, berry tarts (with ice-cream) and had lots of coffee's and hot chocolates. Oh now reality has set in and Lucy is getting better and I have to go back to work tomorrow (sigh).

We put up the Christmas tree and the wreath is on the front door, now all I have to do is wrap some pressies and pack for our holiday to Tasmania. I am looking forward to getting away from Perth for a while and seeing some mountains and sailing on the Huon River.

Sewing Lessons & Smiles

My heart skipped a beat today when Lucy asked me if she could learn how to sew. We cut out some squares of fabric and threaded up my old Singer sewing machine and got to work, it amused her for hours whilst I caught up on a bit of work in between re-threading the needle a few times.  She was so proud of herself and asked if we could make a quilt for my friends new baby. We decided that a small quilt for teddy might be the best idea for her first project.

The most wonderful thing is that my machine still works as well as it did 30 years ago.

Just before falling asleep she said "tomorrow I am going to learn to thread the cotton through that tiny little hole Mummy"

Delightful.

Liberty Love

Will the urge ever go away to buy Liberty fabric? nope! not in the near future anyway. I had a little of my birthday voucher left so I decided to build on my little Liberty stash and grab a few pieces. The Strawberry Thief is probably my new favorite and I love the story that goes with it...

This was designed by William Morris in 1883. It was part of a group of designs incorporating animals with flowers. Liberty first produced it as a furnishing fabric in 1979 and it has since been redrawn for tana lawn on a smaller scale.

I would love it on large scale for a cushion or two.

Another lovely find today was these little miniature glass Christmas baubles. It is a wonder I dont shy away from these as I sliced my knee open on a broken one of these whilst wrapping Christmas presents with my brother one year. I have a lovely scar that I don't mind as it is my Christmas scar.

Heather Bailey makes the most gorgeous colours in these little felt bundles too, another thing that is hard to pick on a few from a basket full at Calico&Ivy.

Right Now

I can't keep up with myself sometimes. There are so many books I want to read, so many quilts I want to make, so much sewing I want to do and lots of bits and pieces around the home I really need to get finished.

Right now I am about to quilt Lucy's new couch quilt, get stuck into this months favorite magazines, try some recipes from Falling Cloudberries, a gorgeous book that I would like to own but have borrowed from the library until I can find a bargain copy. Bowerbird is next on the agenda, Sibella Court's new book which I have only just flicked through quickly... it is staring at me on the coffee table saying "slow down, read me, start decorating".

Recovery Time

Movies on the couch

Flowers to cheer

Goodbye to those tonsils and adenoids, ear infections and poor sleep, welcome Grommets. Lets hope that my little Lucy is feeling better soon.  The next few weeks will be rest, recovery, movies and quiet projects. I am looking forward to playing nurse mum, hanging out at home and slowing down the pace.

Melbourne Cup Fantastic Hat

Chocolate & Hugs

Chocolate

Best Friends

The weekend was...

 A friends 40th where I was in charge of making chocolate mousse

Continuing to paint the front room

Catching up with friends 

Sunday sleeps

and a bit of sewing. 

Backyard Update

This week, the fence went in, the man-cave was painted and my rustic wall complete. A few plants went in and we are slowly starting to see it all come together. We were hoping it would be finished by now but as our landscape guys says, 'Rome wasn't built in a day'. Hopfully we will be swimming soon.

Backyard Blitz

Before

In she goes

and in Lucy goes

Since we bought this house we have been dreaming about having a pool in the backyard and making the most of the space we have so we can spend this summer at home and avoid trips to the local pool and long drives in the car to the beach. Our dreaming and many months of designing our yard has started to become reality and last week the pool went in. With the help of our landscaping guy we will now create our french rustic backyard and hopefully see our drawings come to life.

After spending a morning relocating the lemon tree to a lovely couple a few streets away, the digger came in, dug a massive hole and then the 80t crane lifted the pool over the house. It was so warm on Sunday that despite the fact that the pool is full of dirt due to the lack of landscaping, Lucy couldn't wait and she jumped in - she is very brave, the water is freezing.