Makings in macro.

I declared yesterday a housewife day. All day long I cooked and cleaned and washed and baked and shopped. That meant that today after bush kinder I had a chance to play with my new, but very late, birthday present macro lens.

What a great way to show you what I've been making.

Knitting the sleeve of my Ruby Red Ribbed.

Crocheting the hem of my Farmer boy's pillow case.

Baking afternoon tea cookies.

Ahem.

Mama and baby.

The very first photo I took with my new macro lens once I got it home was of these #$%^&ers. I guess they have become immune to that essential oil mix spray I've been swearing by for months now. Bum!!

Knitting Farmer Bren another beanie. Man it's cold here.

Playing around with some crochet.

Book marking ideas for brooches.

Sewing manchester for the caravan.

And washing and combing Miss Pepper's hair. It is long! Past her bum-bum now. I'm not cutting it though. No way! She's my last baby and I'm hanging on to that new born hair for as long as I can.

So that's me.

What are you making?

Bye now. xx

Committing.

For obvious reasons I've been thinking about life and death a lot over the past few weeks. More specifically, I've been thinking a lot about the decisions and plans people make when they think they are going to die, or when they get a second chance at life. Plans to jump out of planes, to travel to far away places and to follow dreams and loves.

It's got me thinking about how I want to live my life and that I don't want to wait for something catastrophic to happen before I realise my dreams and live my life to the fullest.

So what do I really want to do?

I really want to go on this caravan adventure we've been planning. I really want to commit to going. To get excited and make plans and let go of the guilt and fear that's holding me back.

Yep, I feel guilty.

Why do we deserve to take off on a four to six month holiday?

We're just coming out of the worst organic farming season we've experienced since we've been here. We've only been doing the Daylesford Organics thing for 10 years. People wait their entire working lives to take such a trip. And we're leaving the farmer boys behind to work on our property while we go on holidays...

And I'm scared.

How am I ever going to get this house organised and clean enough to leave it to another family? What if our itinerary is too ambitious? What if my children drive me crazy? What if I run out of yarn? What if someone gets a cough or snores and I never get to sleep? What if it rains and rains and we are stuck in the caravan for days? What if something bad happens at home? What if Indi and Jazzy fall too far behind at school and have troubles next year...

Ok, now I've written it all down I'm leaving it here and moving on. From now on I'm going to be enthusiastic and excited. Tomorrow I'll write a to-do list and over the next 40ish days I'm going to work through it.

I am really going to try not going to coast through my life any more and I certainly don't want to wait until something bad happens to live my life to the fullest.

I know for sure that if I were to write a list here of all the positives of our travel plans, I could fill four blog posts.

So let the adventures begin!

Have a fabulous week y'all.

PS. The top two pics are of the vintage sheet pillow case I made my Dad. I'm about to retire to the couch to crochet the edge of Farmer Bren's which is the same.

The third pic is of our heart shaped Melbourne afternoon waiting for our la'heart'tes and h'eart' chocolates with my folks in the city this afternoon.

Happy Monday!

Have I ever told you that my Dad emails all his girls every Monday morning to wish us a wonderful week? Well he does. The last two have come through my Mum, but I can hardly wait to get his again next week.

So a happy Monday from me to you all too. I hope you have a fantastic and creative week.

Here a some of the things that are making me smile this chilly Monday morning:

What an awesome transformation our caravan took when the outside stripes were painted blue.

Farmer Bren's homeopathics kit. He did a first aid course recently, so now if you are overemotional, if you can't sleep, fall off the trapeze, or have a nasty cold; has he got the remedy for you.

I adore these three morning scribbles. Miss Indi's version of a Foxs Lane logo. Did you notice how similar it is to the Daylesford Organics one? I like it. Miss Pepper's portrait of me. Eeeeeeep, I am ridiculously excited to have these big headed people drawings in our house again, I can feel a screen printing session coming on. And Miss Jazzy's butterfly catcher. I love how dreamy that kid still is.

I have been smiling while reading through all the Genki T'shirt entries. I love all the crafty plans being cooked up.

The winner of the T'shirt is Fiona from Inner Pickle. Hooray!!!!!

You should totally check out Fiona's gorgeous blog and her knitted and crocheted cowls.

I am smiling about pretty little packages in the mail. Thanks Kate. x

And I'm a loving putting together piles of fabric suitable for boy pillowcases. Farmer Bren and Farmdoc, looks like it's your turn.

So that's me.

What's making you smile? I'd love to know.

Have a funday and keep warm xx

house/heart keeping.

I'm home!

The heart bubble has burst and I'm back to brush hair, do laundry, make food and turn off lights. They missed me terribly which is a great thing. Miss Pepper took a long, hard look at me and told me I still look gorgeous. Phew. Jazzy keeps asking me to spell icup (get it?!) and Indi wont stop cuddling me.

Life goes on here. There are so many stories and questions and jokes and fights and needs.

But its like there is a loooooooooong string tied between my heart and those of my parents. And while I am busy with life here, an enormous chunk of my heart is there. I never usually answer the phone but today I am. I am waiting anxiously for a scrap of news. Anything.

I am at home but I also feel far away.

Last weekend before I left for Melbourne I made Miss Pepper her caravan pillow case from a pile of fabrics she had chosen.

I wish I was brave enough to chose fabrics like she does. The brighter and more patterned the better.

She chose red for the crocheted trim.

At night while I was away I liked to think of two of my girlies fast asleep on their Mama made pillow cases. It was almost the next best thing to being able to kiss them goodnight.

Indi's is next but she's still undecided about what she wants.

I've got a yukky cold so this is probably the best place for me. I'm drinking coffee I brought back from Melbourne, knitting rows of Miss Ruby Rib, making toasties for lunch, cuddling my darlings and trying to be a patient, enthusiastic Mama.

It's such a shame blogger gobbled up the comments from my last post as I was looking forward to showing them to my Dad. As a blogger himself he totally gets it. But nevertheless I read them and appreciated them and thank you for them.

And finally, due to blogger's tantrum yesterday, I think I'll leave the Genki giveaway open for a little bit longer. Enter here and I'll choose a winner on Monday.

I hope you have the most wonderful weekend.

xx

Pretty pillow.

The next step in the caravan prep is the really fun part, the sewing part. I need to sew up pillow cases and fitted sheets and doona covers for the four beds and some curtains to cover all the windows and then one for each bunk bed for privacy.

I made a start yesterday with a pillow case for Miss Jazzy.

First I measured up a pillow case that I already have.

Then I made a pillow case from these measurements from scrap fabric.

Then I ripped up the scrap pillow case into bits and measured these bits adding seam allowances.

Then Miss Jazzy chose some fabrics and I followed the measurements and made her a pretty pillow case.

Then I crocheted a trim around the edge using this tutorial. Too easy.

I've popped the deets on Ravelry here.

Miss Jazzy slept on her new pretty pillow case last night and this morning claimed she had the best night's sleep EVER!!

Since then there have been little piles of fabric appearing all over the place. The one above was put together by Miss Pepper.

I'd better go and get to work, she's a tough task master that one.

Have a great day y'all.

Treasures.

Yesterday I felt so miserable and crappy that my bones ached. Too much bad news. The weight of the world and all that.

Today I feel sooooo different. I feel optimistic and sunny and good.

The sun is out, the girls are happily playing with a friend (a boy), and I'm about to pack a picnic for a fortieth birthday party.

And as well as the usual health and family and friends type of grateful stuff, on this Saturday I am also grateful for other people's trash. Trash that enables me to recycle rather than buy new, trash that inspires me and keeps my Everything but The Thread little business going and trash that is often so much more my style than the same thing in the modern version.

I am grateful magateful for market treasures like this jar of antique lace destined to grace the hems of pretty dresses and skirts and tops.

I am grateful for garage sale loot. Towels for the caravan, tea towels, table clothes and pillow cases for clothes making, pot holders for the wall and wool for some future fun project.

And I am grateful for generous and kind and gorgeous bloggers who send me their treasures out of the goodness of their hearts. I know you didn't do it for an official thank you Cherie but you are just too gorgeous! Thank you!

I hope you have the most wonderful weekend and have so much to be grateful for yourself.

Big love. X