My creative space.

In my creative space today I am slowly, slowly knitting away at my Tea Leaves cardi.

I am making a start on my softie for Mirabel.

I am wondering how many times I can sew the shirring elastic onto the right side of the dress, unpick, sew the shirring elastic onto the right side of the dress, unpick...before I get it right.

And, as usual, I am trying to find creative ways to compete with the fancy packaging and heavily branded lunch box treats that my children think they are missing out on.

These chippies are made using Mountain Bread painted with olive oil, a sprinkling of salt, cut into squares and baked at 160 degrees for four minutes.

You should try them. My kids love them.

So what's cooking in your space today?

I'm heading over to Kirsty's to check it out.

Have a happy Thursday. X

ps. Today there are 2,630 emails in my inbox. That's 226 less than yesterday.

The Stripey Flower dress.

I had a feeling Miss Pepper was playing with a bigger imaginary animal than usual yesterday when I watched her duck her head to fit through the front door as we were leaving. When we got to the car she confirmed my suspicion when she asked me to put carrots on my shopping list because her horse was hungry.

When we got into town she insisted we take turns riding her horse. First she galloped up the aisles of the organic shop and then I had to. Yes, we live in a small town. Yes, people were probably looking and wondering but no, she didn't make me neigh and for that I was grateful.

The rest of the shopping trip was pretty uneventful. She rode, or walked, or fed her horse and I sometimes rode but mostly encouraged her to leave him outside the shops.

Then while we were walking back to our car, all of a sudden she burst out crying. Really crying. I think there may have even been a few tears.

I couldn't work out what had happened as she was happy and chatty one minute and sobbing the next.

Until she told me her naughty horse had bitten her on the hand. Naughty horsey!!

I consoled her and then we agreed that from now on the naughty horse should probably wait for us in the car.

Imagine Dave the fruit shop guy's face when he was informed in the most serious voice that Miss Pepper's naughty horse had bitten her and that he was waiting in the car for an apple to eat.

She keeps me on my toes that one.

The Stripey Flower dress is made from vintage sheet bits, op shopped denim and bias binding and a gifted zipper. Everything but the thread is stitched around the bottom of the dress. If you want a closer look, its in my shop.

Have a fab day y'all. XX

PS. today's email count is 2,856. That's 136 less than yesterday.

The green house dress.

So lovely readers of this blog, I have a couple of questions for you this fine Tuesday morning.

How many emails do you have in your inbox right now?

I'm asking you because right now I have 2,992 and I have a sneaking suspicion that that is a few too many.

Apart from the junk emails, most of the emails that come in are for Daylesford Organics,or are comments or emails from my blog. The business ones I try to answer as they come in, or I send them off to Bren. The blog ones are a different story. I have high expectations that I will be able to visit or reply to everyone who leaves a comment and so I leave their email until I have done so and then I delete it.

Do you do that?

Unfortunately, life gets in the way and I hardly ever get through the comments before I post another blog, and then I start again even though I am already behind.

Recently my IT guy, (farmer Bren), set me up two more mail boxes on my computer, one called archive and one called follow up. These were meant to help me sort through the emails quicker. Then I was meant to delete anything that didn't have a question in it. Great theory.

This morning I searched through my emails for half an hour looking for an application form to a produce day next year, only to find it eventually in my follow up folder.

Apparently for me, the more folders I have, the more places I have to dump emails and forget about them.

Last night as I visited some of the comments from yesterday's blog, I deleted all the other emails the same commenter had sent previously. That seemed to reduce the number substantially. But I forgot to check if they'd asked a question and now I'll never know.

If I only had the time to deal with every email as it came in. Do you?

So how many do you have? And how do you keep them at a reasonable number? And what in fact is a reasonable number?

Any help or advice would be hugely appreciated.

This Green House dress was made from a sheet given to me by a friend. It has op shopped bias binding, trim, lace and doily and has the words Everything but the thread sewn straight onto the dress. It is a size 4/5. Sorry for the lack of ironing, I was dying to get a picture before the rain. It is raining right now as I speak but the dress is safe and dry in my shop.

I hope you have a great day today and thanks so much for helping. X

The day after.

At our place today we are recovering from, cleaning up after, reminiscing about and generally feeling so happy after Jazzy's spa party.

As the guests came in (in their dressing gowns) they decorated jewelery boxes. I just love how carefully and intricately seven year olds work.

Then they went outside and soaked their toesies in bubbly warm water. I have to say, this was the surprise hit of the party and I think they all would have been quite happy to spend the whole two hours there.

That's Jazzy's gorgeous teacher Miss Watt in the purple. She was so wonderful getting involved enthusiastically in everything with the girls.

They loved the bubbly apple juice in fancy glasses and cheersed to Jazzy over and over. Watching some of the girls holding the glasses from underneath and sipping delicately made me giggle.

Then there was nail painting, hair straightening and face masks.

I just love these photos. I was so tempted to post a blog with a photo of every kid and her face mask, but resisted. Instead you get Indi (up) and Pepper (down). Jazzy didn't have her's done because she didn't want to waste a second of her special day and wanted to play and dance instead.

Finishing the day with makeovers from Steph.

We sent the girls home with their jewelery boxes filled with hair treasures and a lolly bracelet.

Last night once the prezzies were opened and the last of the fairy bread had been eaten, Jazzy came up to me and thanked me. She said it was her best party ever and that she loved every second of it. She started to turn away and then came back to tell me that actually it was the best party she'd ever been to too. That certainly makes the cleaning up a bit easier.

So that's one down and two spring baby parties to go.

So what's going on at your place today?

I hope you have a fabulous week. XX

One hour to go.

There is one hour to go until the start of Jazzy's Day Spa party.

She's already all frocked up in the birthday dress I made her. It was the first time in about a year that I sewed with new fabric and I must say I really enjoyed the boldness of the colours and the crispness of the cotton.

I think we've done less preparation for this party than for any other we've ever held, but I think we've done everything on the list on the pantry door.

There's a pile of slippers near the front door for all the guests to wear.

Fancy coloured nail polish to decorate their fingers and toes after they have finished soaking them in bubbly water.

There are hair bands to keep their hair out of the way while the face masks are applied and piles of towels for cleaning up.

Honey and yogurt and avocado face masks are being mixed.

The making table is full of sparkles and stickers and mirrors, ready to decorate the little wooden jewellery boxes.

There are fancy glasses to be filled with bubbles for sipping.

And a crazy, over excited seven year old that keeps on asking when her party is going to start, when is her party going to start, when is her party going to start.

Happy Sunday y'all.

Our Jazzy is seven!!!!!!!

Our gorgeous Jazzy is seven years old today!!

Let the festivities begin!!

Prezzies and stories and singing to the birthday girl in our bed, pancakes for breakfast, dancing and dancing and more dancing to her new ipod and then off into town to get her ears pierced as per the family tradition. Then the big party tomorrow afternoon.

We were laughing at breakfast, remembering how long we waited for you to come out of my tummy and how you were probably choosing the right shade of lip gloss and applying a layer of glitter. And how if we'd called you Tiara or Tinkerbell like I'd wanted to, then it would have suited you perfectly.

Happy birthday Jazzy our ballerina, our dancing queen, our fairy princess!

We wish you a happy and wonderful and sparkly life.

(Jazzy's sixth birthday here.

Gorgeous and huge birthday cushion in top photo made by Andi.

More animations here.)

The apron dress.

It was freezing cold when I took Pepper to play at her friend's house yesterday, but driving down the driveway something crazy overtook me and I pulled her out of the car, yanked off her cardi and jeans and started snapping photos.

The light was all wrong and she was too cold to stay still but I had no control, I kept telling her to turn this way and that and I kept on taking photos.

I can just imagine my kids talking about me one day in the future; Remember how Mum used to make us pose outside in the icy cold wind in all these crazy dresses she used to make out of old curtains and table clothes and doilies! Can you believe she did that to us!

The apron dress was made from vintage fabrics and a doily from the Claire pattern. I really love this dress and have started making up another one in vintage sheet fabrics to see what it looks like.

Thanks so much for all your kind words about Pixie, they mean a lot.

I hope you have a happy weekend.

Its all about the seven year old birthday Jazzy here.

We are so ready for a bit of a celebration.

Oh what fun!

See ya! XX