Crayon muffins.

Mostly on a Wednesday it's just us, Miss Pepper and I. The big girls are at school, her friends are at kinder and her Daddy is being a farmer. On the other days we have an activity like bush kinder or creative dance to occupy us, but on Wednesday we have the whole day until her ballet at three.

Today I decided to start the day with a trip to the community op shop. Let's let the op shop decide what we do with our day I told her. Let's listen for clues to how we should spend our time.

So we went. And we looked around. And we chatted to our friends working there and our friends also looking for treasures. And we found one Fowlers jar, some chalk, a fairy costume, a tapestry cushion and right up the back of the toy section we found a gorgeous, old, beaten up Cadbury tin filled with bits of crayons.

We quickly paid up our one dollar for the lot and scooted home.

We took the labels off the crayons and broke them into small pieces.

And then Miss Pepper carefully divided the crayon bits into a muffin pan.

And then we cooked them for about 10 minutes in a moderate oven (see I'm all old school cooker these days).

We made one batch by cooking them straight in the moulds but we had trouble getting them out, so the next batch we used patty pans. If you are going to make some of your own I recommend the patty pan method, so much easier and so much less mess.

Also, I think I left our first lot in a bit too long and they ended up quite brown on the bottom. The second time we did it I checked on them often and took them out of the oven as soon as they had melted, but before they became too soupy. The second batch were much brighter and better.

And then we drew and drew and drew.

Do you remember those coloured pencils that changed colour as you drew and twisted them? Just like that. So much fun.

It does seem kinda strange to make crayons from crayons, but they were scrappy old crayons and the journey of making our own multi coloured crayons was ace fun.

I'm super excited for the big girls to come home and play.

Have you ever made your own crayons from crayons?
Do you think we could make candles the same way but with a wick in the middle?
Have you found any treasures at the oppy/thrift shop lately?
What did you do today?

Later dudes. x

PS. For all those that asked on my last post; to the left of the Esse wood cooker we have the companion cooker which has a gas cook top and an electric oven. For hot summer days, for when we are lazy or in a rush, for when we get home late, for when we need more than two ovens.

granny stool.

A little stool.
A brown leather, slightly wobbly, discarded, foot stool.
Sitting hiding underneath the table at the back of the junk shop.

I visited that stool about five times over the course of the week.
It wasn't the price that made me wonder, it was the clutter.
Was it fair to introduce more stuff to our house when we were trying to have less?
Was a foot stool a necessity, or a comfort, or an excuse for more crochet?

But I was in love.
There was no denying it.
And the little foot stool came home with me.

And I pulled out my basket of colours and crocheted.

I crocheted one big granny square for the front, a granny without the increase for the sides and a granny with a decrease for the bottom.

And my farmer boy got some tools from the shed and steadied the legs.

And I watched the space change when I introduced the newly grannied foot stool.
It somehow makes everything look cozy.
Not at all like more clutter.
And my heart is happy when I watch my farmer boy sit back and put his feet up.
The little foot stool and us, we were meant to be.

I'm on the hunt for another little stool now.
I need to put my feet up too, you know?
You know.

Have a happy weekend you guys. xx

Dress making.

My house looks like a jam factory.
There are crates of fruit, jars, clips, rubber bands, and lids everywhere you look.
There are cauldrons and preservers bubbling away.
The air is sticky.

And it is Friday and my kids are tired and cranky.
I am too.
This school business is exhausting. Draining.

Last night when everyone had finally gone to bed and the house was quiet I almost succumbed to a bit of a tantrum myself. But luckily I stopped myself and thought instead about happiness. What could turn that impending meltdown around and make me feel good? It had to be something just for me. Something good. Something that would almost certainly work.

Another dress!

Something plainish this time.

Some op-shopped denim.

The same tried and tested and fail safe pattern but with a lower neckline.

I considered some ruffles.

But ended up with vintage lace.

It worked too.
A few hours later I went to bed happy.

I can highly recommend dress making as therapy over a tantrum.

There is so much less drama and emotion involved.
It is easier physically.
It is kinder on everyone you live with.
AND you might even have a new dress to wear the next day.
Yay!

How are things at your place?
Are you all tired and ready for the weekend?
Are you cooking? Sewing? Making?
Is it hot or cold where you are?
What do you do to turn tantrum into terrific?

OK, I'm off to scrub bottles and stir pots.

I hope your weekend is sweeeeeeeeeeeet.
xx

ps. From now on I'll be answering questions in the comments section.
So if you ask me something, please come back and check for your answer.

Last beach.

At the end of last week, with a forecast for some beautiful, sunny days, we headed to the beach to squeeze the last out of of our seven months of summer holidays.

It's hard to believe that in a few days time we will be back in the school, uniform, lunch, activities routine again. Its hard to imagine how we will cope with appointments, meetings and schedules. With bed times and meal times and homework times and wake ups times.

So before all that starts, we headed off to the beach for a few days.

We've been swimming and digging and playing ball and exploring. 

We've been walking through caravan parks and missing our road tripping life and talking about our next journey.

And we're loving hanging out with Miss Indi's friend Ethan, lent to us for five days. I know it's only short term, but things seem so much more balanced with a boy on board. Simpler. More active.

And despite the heat,  I've been crocheting....and playing with my crochet.

And of course I've been op-shopping.

What's a trip to a small coastal town without the hunt for my buddies the Johnson Brothers and The Meakins? Who knows how the six of us plus luggage and thrifty finds are going to fit in the car on the way back.

Home again, home again tomorrow morning.

School uniform sorting, hair cutting, life organising for a few days.

And then the school year begins.

Deep breath.

What have you been up to lately?

Found any treasures?

Made anything gorgeous?

Been anywhere exciting?

Eaten anything delicious?

Do tell.

xx

Creatively speaking...

I am carrying this basket of yarny rainbows where ever I go.

I am hooking grannies.

I am trying to be good and sew in the ends as I go.
But not always succeeding.

I am playing with our farmers' market stall. 

Think mixy-matchy table-cloths and rushed single layer unhemmed bunting.

I am playing around with my second quilt.
A mini, yellow, quarter version of Kate's pattern.
I think it might become a cushion cover.

We are shopping for paint to paint the whole house white.
Except the girls' bed rooms which they want blue.
I still would love a yellow kitchen but the farmer boy wont budge.

I am celebrating op shop treasures by draping them over everything that stands still for long enough.

One dollar for these two rolls of old lace! Can you believe!

And I am trying to style a few lovely corners of my home to make me feel better about the vast majority which looks like a bomb has gone off in it. Ahhhh school holidays. Love em.

What about you?
What have you been up to creatively?

Bye! x

Yellow.

I am obsessing over the colour yellow at the moment.

It's so strange. Usually I am a bluey, greeny, grey-y kinda girl. Usually I barely notice the warmer side of the spectrum. Usually yellow is just that bit too close to awful orange and has me averting my eyes.

But at the moment I love yellow.

Give me lemon, gold, blond, daffodil, mustard, canary, straw or honey.

I think I must be sunshine deficient or something.

Whatever the weather, I am desperately trying to convince my farmer boy we need a yellow wall somewhere in the house and maybe, just maybe a yellow quilt or cushion.

How about you?
Are you loving the lemon?
Or are you hovering somewhere else on the colour wheel?

Bye! xx

On the road again...

We're on the road again.

To be honest I have no idea what was wrong with Miss Frankie Blue. She's all better now and that's all that matters. When the mechanic called early yesterday morning and started babbling on about electric brakes and drums and backing plates and said Bren could go and pick her up I almost cried. I think part of me really thought it was all over.

But it's not!!

Yesterday we packed up, hitched up and drove about 480km until we got to Esperance.

Esperance!!!! Home of Australia's best beaches and whitest sand. Yippeeeee!!!!

We spent the day today checking out some of these awesome beaches. It was raining and wasn't exactly swimming weather but maybe it will be by the end of the week. And we don't care anyway, we are just so happy to be here.

We drove up to check out the Esperance wind farm.

We sat and stared at the pink lake for a while but it wasn't very pink today.

We did a spot of op shopping and I bought my first floral sheets of the trip. I'm not usually into the orangey ones, but at this late stage in the trip I had to buy what was there. It helped that two of them were in their original bags too.

There would have been more op shopping but I had an incident with an overly keen shop lady who WOULD NOT LEAVE ME ALONE and drove me insane. She chatted, she offered advice, she leaned over me and got in my way and.....she didn't smell the best. So I thought I'd call it a day and we headed home.

Home!!! In our cozy caravan once again. Where the girls are catching up on some journaling, Bren is playing the ukulele and I am writing this.

Home. It is so great to be back.

Home. There's no place like it.

Oh and we won Explore Australia's - Road Trippers Hall of Fame!!!! Hooray!!!!!
How cool is that!
Apparently a craft blogger can turn into a travel blogger after all.

I hope things are going to plan in your world.
I hope they are not too crazy leading up to the end of the year.

Happy travels.
Later dudes! xx