A walk & a winner...

It was late Friday afternoon in Broome. The grey nomads were sitting around on camping chairs in groups drinking, the families were gathering up their stuff and thinking about dinner, I have no idea what the couples were doing and it was time for us to pick a winner of the granny cushion giveaway. Yippeeeee!!

But how on earth would we choose a winner from such incredible, generous and funny comments??

The random generator thingy seemed too impersonal, I was waaaaaaay too hot and sticky in this Broome humidity to write out 150 names, the guy in the caravan next door looked at me funny when I asked him for a number between one and 150, so we decided on something else.

We would go for a walk around and let the Cable Beach Caravan Park decide for us. Somewhere here there had to be a number that means something to our family. Something about our time here in Broome.

So we set off to see what we could find...

It's Jeanine's 70th birthday and there's water aerobics on at eight am...

Not a lot of action in the fish cleaning area...No one to ask how many fish got caught today...

Farmer Bren tested if calling 1194, the same number he called when he was a kid, still told you the time on the next stroke...

Merv used to love site 161...

No number ones or twos in the public toilets while I was there...thank goodness...

No one swimming one, two, three, breathe at the pool...

It was taking a while and they left me to it and went home for a drink. I wandered around, got lost, called home for directions (still inside the caravan park), asked a lady for help and finally after what seemed like forever found my way back to Frankie Blue. What a sight for sore eyes.

And look what I found on the concrete right in front of our site! BBQ6, our very own site number.

Comment number six is Little Love!! Yippeeeeeeeeeee

Congratulations Natasha, email me your postal deets and I'll pop the granny cushion cover in the post next time we go into town. xx

My smiley girlies chose the postcard winners...Zippy-Zippy, Jacinta and Patrick (aged 12), Rosie and Bec. Please email me at foxslane@gmail.com with your postal details and I'll get your postcards written and sent soon.

To everyone else, thank you so much for your wonderful comments.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

We're heading to the beach tomorrow and Bren's folks are coming for a visit on Sunday.

What are you up to??

I hope whatever it is it makes you smile lots.

xx

ps. new blogger, you almost made me cry and you did make me swear!!

pp. Happy Birthday John!!

Grateful 2 u giveaway...

Since we've been on the road, I've been a thinking a lot about blogging and bloggers and blog readers.

I am so super grateful for my blog. My blog has given me an outlet to express myself. It's enabled me to make friends all over the world both virtual and real. It's given me the confidence to believe that perhaps I am not the only non writer in my family. It's let me journal my life internal and external. It's let me catalogue my photos. It's inspired me and it's presented me with some pretty amazing opportunities.

And you guys. My readers. I am so super grateful for you too. Thank you for reading, for following along, for commenting, for sharing and caring. Grateful is probably too small a word.

Thank you!!

Over the past little while on the road I have been crocheting the bits of this cushion cover. Those who follow me on Instagram or The Twitter have seen it grow from the first square all the way through to the blocking and the sewing in of the ends.

This cushion really holds a piece of this trip inside it. If you put your ear to it and listened carefully you might hear the buzzing of mozzies in Katherine, the rumble of the car engine from Kununurra to the west coast and my farmer boy reading Tim Winton to me at night in Broome. If you breathed in deeply you might smell citronella, sunscreen and the sea breeze. If you were so inclined you might have a lick and taste bbq's and vodka and old fashioned lemonade and possibly some tears too.

Hopefully Miss Jazzy has found all my own hairs that got caught in the crochet hook and pulled them out so there wont be any of them. Hopefully.

I'd love to send one of you this cushion cover as a thank you.

Trust me, it would look so great on your couch. It looks so good on our caravan couch that I've started on another for us to keep.

Leave me a comment on this post to win it. Tell me something: A joke, your dream, why you like reading my blog, where you think we should head next, what you are grateful for, what inspires you. I don't know...you decide.

If you are one of my email subscribers, send me an email with your comment and I'll add it in.

We'll choose the cushion cover winner on Friday.

We'll also send a post card from Broome to four runners up.

Happy adventuring. xx

When??

So how do you know when its all finished and its actually time to go? Is there a magic sign?

Is it....

When the cushions are plumped up and inviting you to stop, to plop down and have a cuppa and crochet a few rows?

(Please note the coolest organic WA vintage map cushion a la My Bearded Pigeon that we will be stitching our route on as we go. Thanks Cath!! LOVE!! XX)

When the craft supplies are sorted and packed?

(Divine The Textured Leaf pin cushion. Thanks Wendy! xx)

When you would be happy if you never saw a muddy puddle or wet chooken again for the rest of your life.

When the business looks like it will run beautifully and is ready to be handed over?

When there is only a small pile of fire wood left?

When the favourite crockery is stacked neatly waiting?

(Most georgeous doily tea towel by FlowerPress. Thanks Susie. x)

When you have farwelled nearly everyone you know? And some more than once.

When you have nothing left to wear because you have packed all your bestie clothes already?

When the coffee machine is in the caravan and it is too cold to hang out in there to make one?

When the bikes are on the back?

When this year's tax is done? Seriously! Eight days into the new financial year!

When Kate dolly is looking oh so lonely and desperate for company. (Dolly from A Little Vintage. Thanks Jennie! x)

**Jennie is having a 25% off sale in her etsy shop here, pop the code JULYSALE4U in the checkout to claim your discount.

When four bed sheets, four doona covers and 13 caravan sized curtains have been sewn.

When the most hoarded, favourite ever piece of fabric in the stash has been cut up and used as a door curtain.

When Nina Bernina has gone off to sewing machine club med for some well deserved pampering.

When the pile of books on the bedside table is diminishing and the pile on the caravan bookshelf is growing?

When you are so over answering the question when are you going??

When the to-do list is looking scarily finishable?

When keys have been cut and the house minders are packed up and ready to come early next week?

Ahhhhhhhh.....

Rainbow Sunday.

Hello! How are you?

I'm good. I'm happy. I'm having a lovely day.

My folks have been staying here for a couple of days. After breakfast this morning, we rolled out the surveyed map of their block of land and talked about it. What's going to go where and how and when.

We often dream excitedly about what it will be like when they live across the lane from us, but its has been a long time since we've lived near by and I can't really imagine it. Shared meals, a break in their fence for my girls to ride their bikes up, company, extra hands, extra ears, extra drivers, extra cuddles, sheep, a place to run away to...it all feels so exciting.

After they left Farmer Bren went off to be a farmer and I took the girlies to the Sunday market. I'm on the hunt for floral china crockery for the caravan.

Soon after we got there Miss Pepper met a friend and went off for a play at her house. I think this might be the first time she has ever done such a thing. She must be feeling so grown up and independent right now. We feel a bit strange without her.

We shared some little pancakes, chatted with friends, I bought a jar of antique lace scraps and three china plates for a dollar and then we came home.

On the way home from the market we stopped and took some pictures with my new Grandma's Rainbow cushion. Its Michelle's latest pattern.

I finished it last night and realised I didn't have an insert for it. So I walked through the house pulling all the inserts out of other, shop bought cushions. I felt a bit like Goldilocks: this one's too big, this one's too lumpy, this one's too round. Eventually I made one myself and stuffed it with some quilt wadding. I'm still not thrilled with it but it'll do for now.

Grandma's Rainbow Cushion details here.

So now we're home. The big girls are making robots on the craft table, Bren is reading the paper on his ipad on the couch, Miss Pepper is still at her friends' house, I'm about to hit publish and then decide what to do with the enormous crate of pears my Farmer Boy just brought in and then maybe do a few rows of my knitting on the couch. Its cold, wet and windy outside. Perfect baking and knitting weather.

What are you up to?

Have fun out there.

XX

My creative space.

After my crazy hour of procrastination yesterday, I came to the conclusion that as well as a time limit, I also needed incentive (a bribe). So it was decided that if I stopped mucking around and wasting time, I would allow myself to get straight into cutting up Michelle's fabric. No finishing off projects, no hemming jeans, no unpicking. My new fabric straight away.

And so I did.

And this little dress came together in no time. Its called The Buttontree Lane Dress of course. And as soon as I press publish on this post I'll be popping it in my shop.

The gorgeous pocket is one of Wendy's.

After I finished that dress, I made the ruffle and sewed on the doily that finished off this dress. Too easy.

I did get a fright this morning when I woke up and opened my eyes and saw that yellow fabric on the back of the dress. It took me a second to remember that I'd kept one pillow slip for our bed and cut into the other one for this dress.

This week I'm also hooking away at Michelle's latest cushion cover. I've finished the white bit and now its time for the fun, colourful part. Yay!

I've been knitting away at a test jumper but am on hold until the designer reworks her numbers. Fingers crossed I can keep going from here without undoing anything, or at least not too much.

And the preserve of the week this week is grape jelly. Mmmmm. I didn't even realise it was that pinky colour until I took this photo. I thought it was inky purple. I think I might have to make some crumpets for afternoon tea now.

So what're you up to?

Bye. X

Now.

Today is the last Friday in January, we're four weeks into 2011 and its the only Friday left of the school holidays. Today I have that fluttery happy feeling in my tummy for no real reason at all. Today it feels like its all good and I'm not going to question it but I am going to record this little moment in time.

Today; I am reading The Secret Garden to the girls.

I am eating sun warmed, just picked apricots, plums and berries. Mmmmmm

I am wearing a sundress, jeans, thongs and a straw hat when outside.

I am knitting bits of my charcoal cardi.

I am threading elastic through the neckline of a little dress.

I am trying to remember to get to critical mass at 5 this afternoon.

I am marveling at how grown up my big girls are. This morning I dropped them off at a cafe where they ordered and drank hot chocolates. I met them half an hour later at the fruit shop when I'd finished my deliveries. I must say my heart almost burst when I drove past them crossing the road holding hands.

I am loving that the boys are laying irrigation lines and planting carrots and beetroots. Farmers need to farm and after the uncertainty of the last few weeks after the flood that's what they are doing. Hooray!!

I am looking forward to the weekend when our Farmer Boy will be ours and we'll go swimming and hang out by the dam.

I am smelling lavender. Jazzy has been making fairy cups full of sparkles and flowers and beads and lavender.

I am imagining what it will be like when my parents build and then live on the block opposite ours where these photos were taken.

I am popping the auction cushion in the post.

I am listening to Pepper 'read' to me the pages and pages of stories she has 'written'. I must remember to film her.

I am marveling at Indi making eggs for the boys for lunch the past few days.

I am not shopping for school uniforms. A lovely lady stopped me in the street the other day to offer me three bags full. She saw I had girls and her girls are off to high school this year. Yay!

I am worrying about those communities trying to pick up the pieces of their lives after the floods. Like people have said all along, the recovery will be a marathon not a sprint, and we cannot forget about them now that the media circus has moved on.

That's me today.

I hope you are happy and I hope you have the most wonderful weekend.

Bye for now. X

Makings.

In my creative space this week I am stitching together a cushion sandwich.

I am making a mad dash at a dress for Miss Indi.

When a ten year old jeans only wearing girl says she might contemplate wearing a dress now and then, you don't dilly dally.

And I am slowly knitting away at my charcoal cardi.

I divided the sleeves last night (that's them on the red cotton), only to find I have about 13 too many stitches. I have no idea how far back that happened, but I do know that this is the sort of pattern that you do not pull apart one or two rows, waaaaaaay too many yarn overs and stitches knitted together. I might try and decrease a few under the arms, or I might leave it and deal with it when its finished. I have already pulled the whole thing off and started again once, and know that I don't have it in me to do it again.

And then there's these three balls of Noro sitting across from me taunting me. We picked them up the other day at the Purl's Palace closing party. The last three balls of Noro they will ever sell. Indi says they should become a pair of arm warmers. I like the idea although I have yet to master the skill of knitting on double pointed needles. We'll see.

So what's going on in your creative space today?

Have a happy Thursday.

Bye for now.

PS. Maddy and Ali, Pepper says thanks so much for her postcard, she loved it so much. She wants to reply but I've lost the bit of paper with all your new details on it. When you get a chance please ask your Mum to email me your address and birthdays. Miss you loads. XX

Not so random.

I am thrilled to announce that the lovely Michelle has won my cushion cover auction. I couldn't think of many better homes for a granny cushion to go to. Not only is Michelle a fabulous crocheter herself, she also sent me a photo of her very granny lounge room and I think this cushion will fit right in.

After a few attempts at random colour selection that did not work at all, after leaving the whole package of wool and crochet hooks at the beach and having to wait for it to be posted back to me, I am finally on the home stretch.

Michelle, hopefully I will be posting this big fat granny off to you before the week is done.

Thanks to everyone who participated in my auction and to those who cheered it along from the comments section. You guys are so ace!

And just in case you thought it was all lazing about with my feet up and hook in hand at our place. ITS NOT! After playing buses, vets, doggies, babies and squeezing in some laundry and cooking, I have set up a bit of cupcake decorating so I can have a few minutes off to myself.

Now if only they'd stop describing each cake to me in minute detail and asking me if I like it....

Have fun out there. X

ps. Have you ever tried completely random colour selection for anything? Did it work for you? Mine was awful. I think maybe I'm too much of a crafty control freak.

Would you??

Would you wear it as a hat?

Would you use it as a mat?

Would you place it on your chair?

Would you use it for your hair?

Would you give it to your Mister?

Would you use it to hit your sister?

Would you lay on it for a rest?

Perhaps you'd use it for a nest?

Whatever the reason, whatever you choose,

Please, please, please, please make a bid, you cannot lose.

All auction details here.

HUGE apologies to Dr Seuss.