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

My creative space.

My creative space this week, like last week, is all about cooler weather wardrobes for my girls.

I am in the middle of making the Uptown Girl jacket from Make it Perfect.

Mostly I make up my own patterns as I go along, but this week with all the pin cushion stuff going on I needed to be told what to do.

The pattern is for a reversible jacket and so far I have made the front and the back twice, one plain and one patterned. Next to come are the sleeves and hood and then sewing it all together.

If all goes to plan, I'll crochet a trim for the plain cord side. Something that goes up one side, around the hood and down the other side.

For someone who doesn't really like sewing from a pattern, this is a great one and I highly recommend it so far. It even has made me giggle with descriptions of pattern pieces like front bottom and back bottom!

And then there are the gorgeous scraps.

Sometimes its just so hard to chuck them out.

To check out today's other creative spaces, click on over to Kirsty's.

Swap stuff!

Whew, I have 2 more emails to send out and then the final swap tally will be 119 pin cushion swappers.

Apart from the 2 swappers without blogs, all the participating blogs with their links have been added to my sidebar.

The wonderful Kate from One Flew Over has set us up a flickr page, so don't forget to take some pics of your pin cushion before you send it and post them here.

Cath from Chunky Chooky wants some heart topped pins. Does anybody know where she can get some?

Miss Jane wants to know what the best stuffing for pin cushions is. Can anybody give her some advice please.

And of course, the gorgeous pin cushion in this post, as well as the binding and hairclips were made by Julie in a little private swap we've got going on. Thanks Julie. I LOVE it all.

Pincushion swap update!

The view from the kitchen window.

The view on the table in front of me.

To be completely honest I was expecting between 20 and 30 sign ups, so 108 is slightly overwhelming for a disorganised person like me.

I have written your names and details on little bits of paper and then made groups with the little bits of paper, kind of like a wedding table arrangement.

Bren said it is slower this way but I don't do spreadsheets and excel and stuff.

Thanks so much for all your comments and emails of support and encouragement. Thanks for the offers of help and presents too. Can anyone pick up my girls from school in an hour and make dinner for my family?

I am slowly getting there and should be finished emailing you your partner's details by tonight or tomorrow morning.

And then....let the swaps begin. XX

Button up baby!

Look at the gorgeous button Kellie made!

Feel free to copy it and display it on the sidebar of your blog.

Do this by going into your dashboard, then edit layout, then add a gadget, then scroll down and choose picture, copy Kellie's button in and then the link to this post.

Simple pimple?!

Sign ups are open until Monday morning and then I will begin the mammoth task of pairing you up and sending out the emails. Whew, wish me luck!

I thought I'd leave you with a pic of me and my farmer boy taken by the wonderful Ro. Did you notice Bren's tree t'shirt? Watch out, this pic might be appearing in your favourite glossy mag in the next couple of months.

I hope you have a great weekend. We've got a 60th, a farmers' market and our farm stall. Fun!