My photo, his hero.

See that photo over there in the A2 supplement in The Age newspaper?

I took it!

When The Age journalist called me a few weeks back to ask permission to use the photo and for some facts about our farm gate stall, she told me it was going to be quite small.

This morning when I opened the paper up in the car park of the service station in town I screamed. Loudly. I feel a bit bad for all the people filling up with petrol who still don't know what the fuss was all about.

Its also pretty exciting to be number one in their list of farm gates.

Yay!

We're in the middle of a crazy, crazy, crazy weekend here at the moment, but I have been thinking a lot about heroes.

Do you have a hero?

Have you ever met your hero?

Would you like to?

When we first moved to this farm nine years ago and had no practical farming or organic knowledge whatsoever, Bren set about calling every number he could find of anyone who might be able to help us with a bit of information. We didn't want anything for nothing, we just wanted a bit of help.

Nine out of ten phone calls were dead ends.

And then Bren discovered an American self confessed 'lunatic farmer' called Joel Salatin who was breaking the rules and inventing new ways of farming. He bought all Joel's books and became an avid follower.

So much of how we originally set this place up was out of Joel's books and so many of Bren's sentences at that time started with 'Joel says...'.

Fast forward nine years and this time yesterday Joel came to visit our farm and meet us. He wandered around and was only complementary as to what we are doing here, of course he recognised some of his systems and advised us of some new directions we could take.

Like I said, its been crazy here and I still haven't had the chance to talk to Bren about how he felt about the experience but at the end when Joel was leaving Bren asked him to sign one of his books. The book is called You Can Farm and Joel wrote 'Oh yes you can - and yes you are.' Must be a pretty amazing feeling I think.

I hope you are having fun and being inspired out there. X

My creative space.

In my creative space this week I've been starting to think about what I'm going to do with all the motifs I've been crocheting.

My guess is that most of them will probably end up stitched onto little skirts and dresses like this one.

But first we have to have the fit test.

Feels good,

looks good,

I think its time to sew in the zipper and finish the hems.

The motifs shown are numbers 25, 29 and 30 from Beyond The Square Crochet Motifs.

We're having a bit of a crazy week here this week. We are harvesting a lot of our vegies before the rain comes and the paddocks get too wet, we are holding and attending workshops and seminars being held as part of Harvest Week and today I am starting to bake for the farmers' market this weekend. Like I said the other day, sometimes sewing just one seam on my sewing machine goes a long way to keeping me sane.

Check out other creative spaces over at Kirsty's.

I feel

so ridiculously grateful for all the comments you guys left on my third dress post. I am such a beginner in this whole dressmaking thing and your wonderful words of wisdom allow me to move forward and improve.

like I should email you and thank you individually for your advice but Bren is already threatening to send me to blogging rehab.

tired.

so proud and inspired by Daylesford Organics and all that we are achieving but also ready for the slowness of winter and the time to make some big decisions about our business.

like you wouldn't read my blog anymore if I showed you my real creative space.

so lucky and blessed to be part of my gorgeous, crazy family.

like I can't be held to blame if I didn't realise it was Oscar the teddy's birthday today and didn't have time to celebrate in the crazy before school rush this morning.

like I've misplaced the 'how to parent' book all parents should get a copy of when they become parents. Do you have one? Can I borrow it?

so lucky that some of my blog friends are becoming my real life friends. It is just the coolest.

like making a silver beet and potato pie should not be the excuse for a wild tantrum that culminated in engraving the antique kitchen table with a nail.

that housework doesn't make sense. Everything you do you have to do again anyway.

tired.

lucky.

like I'm whinging.

cold outside and hot and stuffy inside.

like the end of May really wasn't the best week to choose for Harvest Week.

like I am so lucky that someone left four and a half meters of denim at the op shop the other day so now I don't have to drive to Ballarat.

like lentil soup and crusty bread.

like I'd love to do something fancy to my blog but I don't know how.

a bit sorry for the boys picking carrots and beetroots in the short creek paddock in the rain today.

like I am loving crocheting motifs but that I should work on something a bit more useful.

tired.

like I don't think I should publish this.

that snatching moments to stitch even one seam at my sewing machine is keeping me sane.

happy that I have completed all the round motifs from Beyond the Square Crochet Motifs and am about to start the hexagons. The motifs above are motifs 19 - 28.

what are you feeling today?

Third dress.

Using some fabric I'd found at a junk shop in town, I had a third try at sewing up the McCall's 8818 dress pattern.

I've worn it all week with a cardi, jeans and boots.

Its when the cardi comes off that the problems are obvious.

For some reason I just can't get the neckline right.

I've made this same pattern three times now and have had the same wrinkly, gathered chest issue each time.

I had to cut one of the back panels upside down as I ran out of the fabric.

I wore this dress down the street the other day and a woman stopped me to tell me that my dress fabric had been her tablecloth. My immediate thought was that this is definitely one of the down sides of living in such a small town, until she told me that she was so excited by what I had made that she was going to go home and go through her linens to see if she had any more for me. Yay!

As for the dress pattern, I'm not sure what to do.

I probably should have a few dressmaking lessons.

I've got to say though, that I am a bit hooked on making clothes for myself.

I hope wherever you are that you are having a lovely weekend.

A pinafore & 2 winners.

When Ms Dance For Cheese (formerly known as The Craft Gypsy), put the call out on her blog for some reversible pinafores to be sewn and sent to the girls of the Dago Dela Hera Orphanage in Kenya, I knew I had to make one.

I had this doona cover in my stash that seemed perfect as it was covered in Australian animals and a farm scene.

I have sewn quite a few pinis in my time and was confident in drawing and cutting the shape but it was the reversible part that got me.

I love the idea that a Kenyan girl who has so few dresses will get a new one that is really two, but I had no idea how to sew it together.

So rather than wasting time shopping for a pattern I decided to cut each of the three pattern pieces out twice and then sew them together, turn them inside out and make the pini the usual way.

While great in theory, my way ended up with wrong bits in the seams on the inside dress. I was tempted to unpick it and start again but I have limited time today and I think a finished pini is better than a pini on my 'to do' list.

So I stitched the seams down and made a feature of them.

I also had no idea how to do a reversible closure so the girl who gets my dress might need to ask for help when fastening the dress on the pink side.

If I were to do this again, I think I'd make two dresses and then sew them together at the end.

And now for the giveaway.

The screen printed, vintage sheet panel and the three meters of crocheted ric rac will be heading across the seas to Malaysia where they might be turned into a zippered pouch by comment number 55 Whimsy Loft.

And because I was a bit overwhelmed by all the new visitors to my blog and because my favourites are really the day to day regular visitors, I did a secret little second giveaway.

And the winner of my secret giveaway who will be receiving this screen printed, vintage sheet panel and these two lengths of ric rac is Kristi!

Congratulations Grace and Kristi, I'll be emailing you soon for your postal details.

I hope you have a fantastic weekend. XX

My creative space.

After drawing and appliqueing wisteria leaves last week, this week I decided I wanted to take the concept one step further and screen print it.

So I cut a stencil,

and collected a pile of t'shirts and pillow cases to print onto.

The first couple turned out well.

But then a very dirty Miss Pepper decided she was sick and tired of her important work,

and wanted to help me with mine.

The next few had black marks on the neck line and various other spots.

Time to wash up I think.

And maybe stick to applique while my helper is around.

Check out the other creative spaces over at Kirsty's.

Random facts & motifs.

A Motif Most Days In May is still moving along steadily.

These are motifs 11 through 18 from the book Beyond The Square Crochet Motifs.

Have you been reading the Week O'Mama's interviews over at Mama Mogantosh blog?

Today's interview is with me. Why don't you pop on over there to have a read of them all?

Thanks for including me Rachael, its an honor to have been included amongst those awesome mamas and a joy to read their stories.

Have you entered my giveaway yet?

The giveaway-a-thon has completely overwhelmed me. I had no idea what I was in for when I signed up yesterday.

If this giveaway mania is not your thing, I'll be holding another giveaway at the end of next month to celebrate my one year blogiversary.

It has been the most gorgeous, sunny and crisp Autumn day in Daylesford today but I'd swap it for the warmth of a mid Summer's day in a heart beat.

I hope your Tuesday is full of sunshine.