Another Insa.

I had another go at the Insa.

I used vintage sheets for the underskirt and red cord for the over skirt. I used shop bought ric rac, crocheted ric rac and a couple of crochet motifs for decoration.

I crocheted the Bebop cardi last October, details here.

Looks like this one passes the twirly whirly test too.

I have that 'the more I sew, the more I want to sew' thing going on at the moment. I am a bit obsessed. Shame the girls have other ideas and plans for the school holidays.

This gorgeous P is for Pepper t'shirt is made by the very clever Samantha. I won it in a giveaway over at her Passion fruit Lane blog. Thanks so much Samantha, we love it.

We're hosting a farm day for the local school holiday program today. I'd better go and put my overalls on.

I hope you have a fun day today. XX

Winter skirt.

So this is my first attempt at a wintery skirt for this year.

This skirt is the lazy girl's version of the Insa skirt from Sewing Clothes Kids Love. I say lazy girl's, because the pattern pages that come with the book are so thin and flimsy and difficult to navigate, that I had a quick look at the pieces and then followed the directions and this is what I came up with.

I used a mixture of vintage sheets for the underskirt and yoke and some cord for the over skirt.

I sewed on some crocheted butterflies and ric rac and some pink lacy stuff.

Bren doesn't like the elasticized over skirt but I do. It vaguely reminds me of my deb dress, only my deb dress had lots of rosettes in the gathers and was a bit more tizzy.

Jazzy likes it.

I could barely get her to stop twirling during the photo shoot which is always a good sign.

I hope your Monday is a funday. XX

Sunday Sunday.

Its Sunday morning.

Bren is picking vegies for the farm shop, Indi is at Lola's house and Jazzy and Pepper are making an extravagant sand tea party outside.

I am dyeing some yarn.

It looks more grey than the charcoal I had hoped for, but I like it.

It reminds me a bit of Bren's dreadlocks when we first met.

He had 81 of them. He still has them in a box under the house.

I wonder if the girls would like to see them.

Yesterday we were hanging out here, when a woman admired Pepper's tree dress.

When I told her I had made it she asked if I could make some stock for her to sell in her shop.

I was pretty excited!

The girls were far too busy choosing a lolly to care.

Today I'm crocheting butterflies and motifs trying to work out the best way to winterfy my dresses. I want to keep sewing with the vintage linens and maybe mix in some denim or cord, long sleeves and lots of crochet embellishments.

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. XX

Guess whose pin cushion.

Well here we are about 10 days into the pin cushion swap.

Pin cushions have started popping up in people's letterboxes.

Photos have started being posted to flickr.

Little hints of ideas here and there.

So I thought, in order to keep us excited about the whole pin cushion thing, we'd play a bit of a game.

So this is how its going to work;

• Below are the gorgeous faces of 10 bloggers labelled A through to J.
• Underneath them are the pictures of their pin cushions labelled 1 through to 10 in random order.
• I'd like you to try to match the blogger (letter) with her pin cushion (number). Please note, these pin cushions are not part of the swap.
• A guess could look like this; A5 or E2 etc

Top line from Left to right;

A)Wendy - The Textured Leaf, B)Jo - Violet and Rose, C)Jennie - Posie Patchwork, D)Selina - Selina's Vintage, E)Deb - Works in Progress.

Bottom line from left to right;

F)Claire - Baby Boudoir, G)Jess - Teddy Bear Wednesday, H)Andi - Patch Andi, I)Linda - 2 Pink Possum Lane, J)Meagan - Ecomilf.

Top row left to right; pin cushions 1-5.

Bottom row left to right; pin cushions 6-10.

So leave a comment with your 10 guesses and let the games begin.

Oh and a prize? Hmmmm...let me think about it...or leave a comment if you would like to donate one. Maybe its just the glory.

I'll let you know the answers next week some time....Have fun!

Thanks heaps Andi for helping me put this together. XX

My creative space.

After yesterday's excitement, I am enjoying the meditative rhythm of crocheting granny squares in my creative space this week.

I am crocheting a cushion cover for a very special birthday girl.

I am hoping to use this thrifted yarn to hook them all together and make a bit of a border. But I'm not mad on the colour.

So I am winding the balls onto this chair,

tying them into hanks,

and then I'll dye them dark charcoal or black.

I hope things are creative in your space this week.

Check out more spaces at Kirsty's.

Some yarn & some exciting news.

I bought a whole pile of this grey cotton at the op shop last week.

I've never bought second hand yarn before because usually I don't have any idea if it is wool/cotton/acrylic etc and what ply it is. But luckily for me this pile was made up of lots and lots of little balls and some of them still had their label with the brand (which I recognised) and their details.

The first chance I got I crocheted up a beanie using Vallie's kids Olivia's butterfly pattern.

It was the first beanie I've ever crocheted that fit the desired recipient's head, although looking at it now, it probably could do with one more row.

I ended up dying the beanie after I had finished it using a dark grey dye and am pleased to say that cotton/microfiber dyes beautifully.

I might have a go at dying a whole chunk of it today for another project I have in mind. Any hints about dying yarn appreciated. I am a bit unsure how to do it without getting into one big knot.

A bit of exciting news before I go.

Australian Traveller magazine is out today and we have just been informed that out of 100 Australian Greatest Gourmet Experiences, our business, Daylesford Organics, has come sixth!!!!

I'll post more details on my Daylesford Organics blog once I've bought the magazine.

I hope you get some great news today too. XX

More mother stuff.

My hearts and flowers have arrived at Julie's place.

Don't you love how something you are a bit tired of the sight of, can get a whole new lease of life in someone else's place?!

HUGE thanks for all your messages of support yesterday.

We are doing good.

We spent this morning checking out a tiny local school with a more creative focus to their learning and now we feel like we have options.

One of us spent this morning standing on top of her auntie's bike playing catch.

For some reason yesterday I felt like I was in a rush to sort this all out, but today I feel the opposite. Today I feel like we might need to discuss it and think about it for a while before we make any decisions.

Bren reminded me last night that in her own time Jazzy will catch up in school and that our main concern is her happiness. Bren is right!

Being a parent is so wonderful and so challenging at the same time. While I am ready for my kids to go out into the world of school and make new friends and have new experiences, another part of me is so over protective, wanting to shield them from anything that might challenge their confidence in themselves and their world.

I guess this is just another part of the parenthood journey.

Have fun out there. XX

Mother stuff.

Well hello there!

Did you have a good weekend?

I hope so.

We spent Saturday at home making, crafting, baking and cooking and then on Sunday we were crazy busy all day with the farm stall. Everyone who comes to the stall at the moment gets a bunch of sunflowers to take home with them and it is such a delight to watch how happy it makes people. One of my girls said we should rename them happy flowers and I tend to agree.

This morning I feel a bit like I am living my life in my head. I have issues to deal with, decisions to make and a lot of emotional stuff going on too.

Miss Pepper moved out of her cot into a big girls' bed over the weekend which brought back a lot of these issues. She is so happy and ready and I have a cot in the lounge room that I'm not quite ready to give away.

Indi is happy and confident but her little sister is driving her nuts. She is desperate for a bit of independence and last night slept in a tent outside her bedroom rather than share a bunk and a room with her.Unfortunately we just don't have a spare room for her to move into.

And Jazzy. My fairy princess.

After watching her for the first term of grade one and a meeting with her teacher last week, I feel like something isn't quite right at school. She can draw the most intricate drawings, build the most wonderful dolls houses, robots and picnic sets but her reading and writing is not where it should be apparently and she seems sad and grumpy a lot of the time.

As I have mentioned before, six is generally a hard age in our family, but to me this feels like something else. This feels like she might just not be ready to slot in and learn with 23 other kids. She might need a bit more individual attention. She might need some creative ways of teaching and more opportunities to be creative herself.

I am all for reading and writing. Bren and I are huge readers. There's nothing like the freedom you gain when you can read. The way the world opens up to you and the fact that you can escape your reality for a while or learn something new.

BUT, not everyone is ready at the same time.

So today I am exploring my options.

After reading Lauren's blog and following some of her links I am thinking about part time schooling. And I am about to make some calls to find out about a local, smaller school.

Who knows what will happen. I guess its just some of the mother stuff we have to deal with. But on days like today, this stuff seems huge and so much more important than the cooking, laundry and accounting mother stuff that is waiting for my attention too.

The bottom four photos in this post were taken by my sister Meg when she had Jazzy last Wednesday at the school of Meg.

I hope you have a great, uncomplicated, happy week. XX

I made this!

To be completely honest with you, I cannot believe I made this.

The clothes I make are usually unstructured, make it up as I go along, skirts, dresses and pants.

But this is something else entirely. This is a reversible/lined winter jacket. This is something I would admire in a shop and not even contemplate trying to work out how it was made, to copy it.

The Uptown Girl by Make it Perfect pattern is fantastic! I followed it down to the pressing open of the seams and clipping of the curved seam allowances and it worked.

I made Miss Pepper a size three which is a bit big for her at the moment but will last longer.

I also used iron on interfacing that I had left over from my hat making mania last year that was probably a bit stiff for this project but I have a feeling a machine wash will soften it.

The big girls have put in an order each which is always a good indication of how successful a project is, so it looks like I'll be scaling the pattern up to fit sizes six and nine.

Oh yeah and I still have to find a big button and sew a button hole to replace the safety pin for the closure and then crochet a trim for the plain side.

I hope you have a fantastic, sunshiney weekend. XX