The Sun Quilt dress.

In the early 90's, some of my sisters and I used to occasionally work for our grandfather's shirt company making the swatch booklets of all the fabrics.

Every day on our way to lunch, we would pass this gorgeous children's wear shop. The owners of the shop sat at the back and made the clothes that were sold in the front. They were the coolest, most fun and unique children's clothes I have ever seen. They looked like they used lots of vintage fabrics and they looked like they would be such fun to wear.

At the time I dreamed more about how much fun it would be to work in that shop and sew those great clothes than I did about dressing a kid in them. I didn't think to buy any of those gorgeous clothes because having kids felt like a long way off for me then and I probably assumed they would still be there, sewing and selling those great clothes when I needed them.

But they aren't.

I have googled them over the years but haven't been able to find anything.

This quilted, reversible dress is my ode to Sun Clothing.

I think it is the type of dress those girls would have made.

When I showed it to my Mum, she told me it was the type of dress we wore when we were little.

The other day I went to the fabric shop intending to buy some wadding stuff to quilt a dress with, but when I saw this parka/sleeping bag looking fabric, I couldn't resist.

It was a shortcut but it also made me feel strangely happy and reminiscent of childhood days.

I sewed it to this fabric which I found at the Daylesford Sunday market a few months back.

I cheat quilted it by sewing along the white pre-quilted lines on the blue side.

Then I bound it all in brown.

I love the fact that she is dressed for this freezing cold day but isn't weighed down with a hundred layers.

I think the Sun girls would have liked it too.

My creative space.

Yesterday morning I was digging around in the back of what feels like my very uncreative space, my wardrobe, in the hopes of discovering something new and exciting to wear. While I didn't exactly find what I was hoping for, I did come across a very soft, wine coloured wrap around top.

I was hopeful. I tried it on. And then I remembered why I had chucked it to the back of the wardrobe in the first place. It just didn't work on me. The wrap around bit was too low and the shoulders were too saggy and I probably should have tried it on in the oppy I bought it from all those years ago.

But it was so soft.

So yesterday morning instead of chucking it back, I cut it up, stitched it back together again and made a dress for Miss Pepper.

There weren't any big enough bits to get whole pattern pieces out of, so I just stitched some smaller bits together to make two pieces for the front and two for the back.

I didn't even care that I sewed the back wrong side out.

And then I pinned a doily to the front. I'll sew it on later.

I can't stop crocheting these doilies at the moment. They are strangely addictive.

Oh and the beanie.

I can't stop crocheting them either.

Since I discovered how easy they are to make when you forget about a pattern and increase until you get to the size you want and then make the sides, they are actually fitting heads around here too. Which is a good thing because it is positively arctic outside.

I hope your Thursday is a creative one.

Check out the rest at Kirsty's.

A photo shoot.

The other day Bren was doing an interview for The Weekly Times about our farm when for some reason he mentioned this blog. Before you knew it, the journalist had set up a time to interview me for a Foxs Lane article to run next to the Daylesford Organics one.

Because she isn't a blog reader or writer I found myself trying to explain the sense of community, the sharing of inspiration and the friendships. I tried hard to make blogland sound like the wonderful place it is for me and tried not to make it sound like Internet dating.

While she found it difficult to understand that I often repurpose bed linen and tea towels to make clothes for my kids, she loved the idea of crafters making a difference with charity work and aid relief. She also loved the concept of 120 women from all over the world making and swapping pin cushions and teaching each other new skills and sharing patterns.

So as you can see from the photos, this morning was the photo shoot for the article.

Bren had his photos taken out in the paddock with a couple of chooks and these are the pics he took of the photographer doing mine.

After the girls were in bed last night I had the brilliant idea to crochet up one of Kirsty's granny shrugs to wear in the photo, but didn't quite get it finished in time. Instead it is sitting on my lap being worked on.

I am always nervous before I read articles about us and what we do here and this time is no exception but it feels more personal. Daylesford Organics is our business and we are used to talking about it in a public forum but Foxs Lane is my baby. It is filled with my thoughts, my projects and...well me.

Wish me luck.

And while I'm on the personal, I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to answer the eight questions on their blogs. Its been great learning more about you guys, and so interesting to see how different our answers are to the same questions.

If you'd like to answer the eight on your blog, pop your link in here and off you go.

I hope your Monday is a funday.

Eight answers.

So this is me on the other side of the camera.

Let me tell you out of the thousands of photos on my computer, there were only about six of me to choose from. This was taken on a Thursday a couple of weeks back when we were picking for the Melbourne restaurant deliveries.

So here are my first eight answers to your questions;

1. Favourite meal to eat? I definitely fall into the eat to live rather than live to eat category. I prefer savoury to sweet. I have been a vegetarian for a LONG time. My favourite meal is one where most of the ingredients were grown on our farm. Either roast vegies or haloumi, feta and rocket salad. I could eat either of these meals for every meal and not get sick of it.
2. Do you have a quirky eccentricity? I'm sure I have many but the one that springs to mind is my dislike of the colour orange. I do not eat orange foods, wear orange clothing or have anything orange in my home. The weird exception to this rule is some vintage sheets I have recently brought home. I have no idea why they are ok.
3. My middle name is Simone. My Dad's Dad was named Simon and he died before I was born, and I was named after him. My kids have my surname as their middle names and also something we grow on our farm; Apple, Olive and Berry.
4. I am passionate about food. Good, clean, in season food. Food that was grown and cooked with integrity. Food that isn't full of numbers and zillions of unidentifiable ingredients. Food that is in season here and preferably doesn't come from too far away. Food that comes from animals that were treated well. Trying to get my kids to eat something that is not pasta. Trying to buy from the producers directly when possible. trying to cook from scratch as much as possible. Old seeds and rare breeds.
5. Thongs or Birkenstocks? Both. But its cold and muddy here right now so its my Camper boots and my Converse runners.
6. Who was I before I had kids? I can't remember. I studied Fine Art with a Bachelor of Education at uni for four years and worked in an ice cream shop, a fashion buying department, a visual merchandising department, as a wwoofer, in a super market deli and a fashion accessory company. I travelled overseas and up and down the East coast of Australia, I fell in like lots and in love once.
7. Have I ever been arrested? Yes. A few times as part of the Save Albert Park from the Grand Prix protest and then Bren and I lived and blockaded at the Jabiluka blockade in Kakadu where we protested against uranium mining for three months.
8. This weekend I will sell our gorgeous eggs and vegies to people who visit the Daylesford Farmers' Market and our farm gate stall. I will lice comb my girls' hair, I will crochet some beanies, work on my jumper dress, start sewing a bag, watch a family dvd, do some housework and some farm chores, and hopefully spend some happy time and play with my girls.

I just found the above photo on my phone. It is of me on the side of the camera where I feel most comfortable. In it I am taking a photo of the vegies we sent to Sydney a few months back for our entry in the 2010 Delicious Produce Awards.

There are lots more, interesting and thought provoking questions on that post that I plan to answer over the next week or so, including the how I met my farmer boy question. Right now I've got to rush to the Daylesford Farmers' Market to help Bren.

You know what?

I would LOVE to read your answers to today's questions too. This was meant to be a pass it on to seven bloggers after all.

Why don't you play along on your blog, just put your details in the thingy below and off you go. You know you want to. Consider yourself tagged.

My creative space.

For this week's creative space I considered giving you a tour through the jumble of half made projects that are currently sitting on and around my sewing table, but I think that will only make me feel bad. It seems these days if I don't start and finish a project in the same sitting, then it gets left behind in the rush to start the new thing.

So I have decided to show you the rubbish bin that sits next to my sewing table instead.

I know, exciting huh!

The truth is though that I give this bin and its contents a lot of creative thought.

What goes in the bin?

How small does a scrap have to be to be unusable? To me? To a smaller creative person?

Broken needles and over locker threads are rubbish for sure, but what about empty cotton spools, selvages and bits of sewing that didn't turn out right?

The other thing is that often I judge what sort of week I've had by how full my rubbish bin is.

I try to empty my bin once a week on a Thursday. If I get to emptying day and there isn't much rubbish in the bin, it probably means I haven't sewn much that week. But if by Thursday the bin is full, then the world must have been kind to me and given me a few sewing opportunities.

And finally, when I'm walking with my bin to the outside bin to empty it of its contents, I like to reminisce over all the different bits of fabric and the projects they became or will hopefully become.

To check out some actual creating head on over to Kirsty's.

And big thanks to Gypsy for the gorgeous background fabric.

Eight things.

This morning I have baked chocolate chip cookies, gotten the girls dresses and ready for school, done and hung out two loads of washing, played Hama beads and drawing hands, been to the post office and to the organic shop, taken ten minutes to walk from the car to each of the shops because Pepper was wearing high heel plastic shoes that kept on falling off, stopped along the way to talk to everyone who wanted to tell her how glamorous she looked, made her lunch and put her to bed.

As a reward to myself I thought I'd sit down and tell you eight things about myself because Wendy tagged me to. I haven't actually ever played any of these games before, but Wendy asked me to and so I kinda want to do it. Its also meant to be seven but I prefer even numbers and multiples of four.

But...now I'm sitting here I have no idea what to tell you.

What do you want to know?

Why don't you ask me a question and I'll answer.

Please don't make them too hard, my brain might not cope.

But I guess it could be anything really; My middle name? The brand of sewing machine I use?What type of tea I drink? My favourite size crochet hook? What do you think? What do you want to know?

(The eight of my favourite things in the pic above are; my favourite thrifted ribbon, my pin tin, a necklace Jazzy made me, clever Jess's Cumkwat, Indi's mushroom knitting Nancy, the crochet rose thingy that keeps my cardi closed, a Daylesford Organics onion and some Scarlet runner beans about to be threaded.)

Half of The Sunshine Dress.

Despite the fact that I already have several crochet projects on the go, when my parents brought me the new issue of Crochet Today on the weekend I just had to start another.

I crocheted my first ever gauge square and because it was about an inch too small, I added 10 chains to the initial pattern. I know that I should have gone up a hook size and done another gauge square, but I don't have anything bigger than a 5 hook.

Two rows after the armpit, I realised that it was getting too full too fast, so I stopped increasing.

In the craziness that was the weekend, it was great to have a two row pattern that I didn't have to think much about.

The yarn is Jo Sharp Desert Garden Aran Cotton in Dew,that I found at an op shop a while back. Lucky because this dress is using plenty of the stuff. In fact, I might have to stop in another four or so rows because it is starting to get a bit heavy.

I'm feeling a bit foggy today. Miss Pepper woke me up at 4.40am for a cuddle and wouldn't go back to sleep. I started to get impatient with her and then remembered being awake for hours and hours with Indi when she was this age.

I think I have to remind myself now and then that she is only two and not to have the same expectations of her as the big girls. When they were her age I organised my life around their playgroups, dancing classes, story times and nap times, now I think I expect Pepper to fit in to my life until they get home from school.

For some reason now I identify myself as someone with school aged kids and expect to achieve more but the truth is that Pepper is still so little and still so needy.

The first day of winter is probably a good time for this realisation as things are about to slow down here on the farm and I will have more time to play.

Happy Tuesday!