tops and a bottom

 



Some new bits and pieces that I will be taking to the markets tomorrow. As I mentioned I am so delighted with these colours, I really get inspired by the random fabric I find and often find myself going on a completely different tangent, led purely by the fabric. This teal blue top (above) is gorgeous but totally polyester, but still I couldn't resist, luckily we are heading into winter.


The skirt is new, as you know lately is all been about tops, tops and more tops but that lightweight denim was singing to me, serenading me, wanting me to make it into a skirt. So I obeyed.

As instigated by Nikki and a smaller glimmer in my mind I have started on a few long sleeve/3/4 sleeve tops, I really enjoyed the challenge. The tablecloth top with the houses is quite striking but not sure how many more I could make that works this well. 

Ta da. Here are my embroidered vegetables hanging on the walls of the Everything That's Beautiful gallery. Two pieces ended up selling, I was really touched, excited and a bit shocked.  

Mothers Day was really sweet, lots of cuddles, kisses and cards in bed followed by a special Ilo, Poe and Scott breakfast (not shown here, I had finished eating by the time Scott got the camera so his breakfast stood in). I stayed in bed til 10am, reading craft blogs in bed, listening to my lovely ones play and laugh. I hopped on my new old red bike and we headed down to the river for a picnic in the sun. Then it was home for the usual fancy dress amusement.

Yesterday I awoke feeling like I had a flu, body aches, sore eyes and an overwhelming sense of weariness. I thought back over the last few nights and realised I had been staying up to about 12 every night embroidering and totally neglecting any downtime my body was needing. I remembered that this has happened before and it wasn't the flu it was exhaustion. So I stopped. I had a infra red sauna at Alchemy to sweat things out, dosed up and spent the rest of the day in bed, not sleeping, resting and today I feel so much better. I really need to be more aware of this as I just want to do so much and forget to nurture myself a bit.

sneaking a peek

Here is a little sneak peek at my goat embroidery for an upcoming exhibition (i'm thinking it kind of looks like a deer, hmmm need to do something about that), the tantalising colours that are radiating from some of my new tops and some of the delicious fabric i managed to haul out of the fabric-a-brac.

busyness

 We've been busy this week, busy enjoying dinners, dinners that have been talked about for many a month but are only now, in this one week, coming to fruition. On the Monday after we returned from our trip we met David, Kelly and Jarrah by the river, the kids enjoyed the refreshing water and we enjoyed watching them and then dismaying as the sun's warmth left and the river was no longer the best place to be. We quickly scuttled off to their home, where a fire was quickly created and a warm bath filled. A lovely and cosy evening.

The next night we headed up the road (literally) to The Purple Carrot, where Amy was celebrating her birthday with lots of colour. Everybody brought a plate of deliciousness (I brought a chickpea slice with some lentil tomatoey sauce, it was a hit). So we feasted, chatted, Ilo fell asleep and then we mosied on home. Check out that gorgeous grin on that stunning woman! Amy exudes that type of energy and delight, pretty much all the time, it is always such a pleasure to be in her company. 

And these two did some very serious playing together. 

Wednesday night we enjoyed some delicious mexican food at our home with the lovely Alice and Jamira, Thursday saw a relaxing, fun and easy evening eating minestrone with Libby, Sepo, Jim, Kayla, Sam, Anais, Melissa, Elyssa and Jethro, phew. This night included lots of hide and seek, couch jumping and delightful giggling. Friday we stuck with tradition and headed to The Lodge. Tonight was extra special as it was Vic's birthday, Scott played a huge part in making Vic feel awesome, lots of hugs, birthday shout-outs and by creating a whole stack of lovely and beautiful Wanted posters (wanted for having too much talent). The Mid-North performed, Scott looked especially hot, something about that vest, shirt and beard, what a combination.
I really love watching Poe and Ilo watch Scott, they gently tap their feet or fingers and quietly sing the songs, usually whilst nodding their heads, such reverence.
The Mid North were in high demand this weekend, they also played at Vintage Espresso on Saturday, had a really lovely easy vibe.
Sorry that was all kind of blurted out with no wit or any added extras, I have some embroidery to do and feel a little torn between this post and the cushions by the fire and my embroidery waiting patiently.
I have been sewing lots of tops today, including some long sleeve ones (thanks for the kick Nikki, will email you some pics so you can get first choice). I am really delighted with the colours I am using at the moment, thanks to a knit score at a garage sale in Coffs, these are very limited items. I promise a post about them soon. Now onto my goat embroidery and the fire and maybe a cup of something warm and delicious, oh and did i mention the vegan tarte tartin i made......

Pssst just so I am not painting a picture of us being totally negligent parents, I would like to note now that all these dinners were remarkably sensible and Poe and Ilo were in bed by 7.30 every night. Please hang up the phone to DOCS right now....... now. 

warmth

Unfortunately the super secret meeting I was supposed to be having in Sydney didn't actually happen, but that's not to say that the secret won't eventually happen so stay tuned.
In the meantime, as you can gather, we got some healthy, nutritious and delicious loving up by friends. And so it was at Jen and Rod's, stories were told (and marvelled over), cubbies were built, toys swapped, some lovely and high rotation music shared (Laura Veirs, Tumble Bee has been a huge hit in our home for both young and old) and as to be expected, delicious food devoured. Rod whipped up this divine pear pie and check out the kids faces below as they smell the deliciousness from the pot, right next to the bowl of steaming broccoli.

The beautiful Jen and I, did manage a very brief trip to see Scott play at the Sydney Bluegrass Society gathering at Annandale (which was the other reason for our trip), however after seeing Scott perform 2 .5 songs out of the intended 4, we got the call from Rod that Ilo had woken up, so we quickly dashed back home (they live in the next suburb from Annandale, very convenient) and then we spent the rest of the night, snuggled up on the lounge chatting, totally gorgeous. 

The next morning just before our meeting that didn't happen, I met up/ran into Cass, Zoe and Mia at the Fabric-a-brac (awesome name, huh) at the Petersham Town Hall. Yes, it was totally awesome and I scored big time but as is my op-shop way I was unable to spend very much on the fabric, as awesome as it may be I have a huge block on spending more than $15 or any one fabric, and the $15 I did spend was on 6 metres of beautiful lightweight denim. But I really love being restrained by op-shop price guidelines, things just don't seem as beautiful to me, if I have to spend a lot on it (it kind of enters another realm, the untouchable realm and when it's there, I can look, admire but am able to quell the need to possess rather easily, maybe I am just stingey - did that just sound totally crazy?) But after writing that I have realised a huge flaw, for some reason when I look at fabric like this

online, my heart does soar and my fingers itch (but still I don't buy it, mostly due to it needed to catch a plane to be with me and secondly because the fabric is new, still long for it though), maybe in the 'flesh', the fabric can be reasoned with more, my imagination does not make it even greater than it is because I see it, touch it and hold tight to my purse. Okay, enough, sorry, that was a bit too much internal dialogue that ended up being spewed forth, eek, sorry (will just clean it up now, insert whistling).

I will photograph the rest of my score but it did include some really gorgeous wool (red and speckled for some delicious winter skirts), a beautiful vintage purple/pink and green deco style, little houses on some linen, lots of spotty fabric and my favourite some mustard (yes) fabric with bees on it, c'mon, bees, mustard and a little red somewhere, can't get much better than that, all for 5 big ones, yeehaw. Such a delightful time, and everyone was pretty well behaved, this was a dignified crowd, I don't think I saw one elbow out of place and definitely no running or pushing. I have been toying with the idea of doing a similar thing up here, 'sell your stash', doesn't quite have the same ring (or potential meaning) but am working on it.

I am in the process of starting up an online shop through these guys, Blue Caravan (took a while to decide who to chose but Rod recommended these people and I ended up choosing them because they are an Australian company and they only stock handmade, fair trade and ethical products and I might have a shot at being found on their website, as opposed to etsy). But am feeling very nervous about how to photograph my stuff, unfortunately the bathroom shots aren't quite going to cut it. Any ideas people? My sister was suggesting getting some proper lights but at the moment I don't think I can really afford it. Currently I am thinking of getting volunteers and doing outside shots, or is it better against a plain background? Ideas?
I have also purchased some rubber stamps from these lovely people, to make my tags and care instructions, but still need to order some Versa craft fabric stamp pads.

Argh, so much to do, very exciting though.

and then

After we tore ourselves away from the sweet embrace I mentioned in the last post we braved a beautiful example of Sydney traffic (Surry Hills to Arncliffe in 1hour ten minutes, about 12km, ah, good times) to land perfectly into the warm and welcoming arms of Tracey, Vince, Remy and Jenna. Poe, Ilo and Jenna, knowing that at this hour, 6pm, time for play was limited, got straight into a good ole fashioned game of twister. Ilo twisted like he has been twisting his whole life and not once did he get distracted by Jenna's pyjamas! 

 Scott and Vince did some serious and passionate brainstorming about possible work ventures (for Vince not Scott) and along with Tracey did their best to try and ease a stalemate that Scott and I found ourselves in over future abodes (will discuss more later, but you can breathe easy, stalemate temporarily over). When all this wasn't happening Tracey and I made sure that we caught up on everything and showered each other with lots of hugs and love. Again, no pictures of Tracey, very hard to photograph someone when you are hugging them or being hugged by them the whole time.

A quick stop in Newtown and we found Ted and Cass at the end of their garage sale trail. You should have seen Cass's button score, seriously the best ever button score I have ever seen. Oh my goodness. She also, very sweetly gifted us with a gorgeous old floral print, she knows what we love. 

How lucky are we, so much love in such a short amount of time. We got seriously loved up by Ruth, Cam, Edie and Oscar (and a brief appearance by the beautiful Dom). More gorgeous chats, huggles and  infectious laughter. So great that this time we also got to have some time with the beautiful Cam.

                       

Yes there are two pictures of Ruth and Oscar, consecutively and I am very happy with that, in my world, there is no such thing as a Ruth and Oscar overload.

Such sweet times make my heart full but also makes it miss them just that bit more. 

But you should see what we have been doing in Bellingen this week,  a salve to my saddened heart.

* See I could go on about the crap traffic, the wind that was just beginning the make everyone a bit crazy, the awful and relentless cough that Ilo has or how frustrating a stalemate can be, but I save all those bits for my nearest and dearest.

Slowly slowly

Last night we returned from our quick secret sojourn in Sydney town and now I have just uploaded all my photos and was looking at doing a massive whirlwind post but no, I exhaled, I looked at these first few pics and felt wonderfully happy to just gaze upon them. So here we are for a brief but nourishing visit to my parents place. This place exudes love and ease, the welcome we get from my parents as soon as we walk in the door, the hot water bottles in our bed (we arrived Thursday night, around 10pm), the plate of freshly picked raspberries waiting patiently for some little fingers and eager mouths. So much thought, consideration and love. When we land here, it is always so hard to leave this sweet embrace.

Ilo and some ice-cream beans. Poe has a this tree at school and
loves telling people he gets to eat ice-cream everyday!

Aquaponics at work plants growing by absorbing the excess nutrients in the water
that comes from the fish growing tank.

My dad's new chicken tractor that he made with Poe, using old bread trays.

Unfortunately the other morning my dad came in with a dead silver perch in his hands, he thinks he lost about 10 due to an old ph test, that is giving false readings. We all felt awful for him, he was really saddened, he had given a lot of love and care to these fish and was really delighting in seeing them thrive (they reached about 15cm). He knows that mistakes have and will be made and that it's all part of learning, but still a real bugger.

Vegetables

Ilo and I, making haste and chopping up half of the tomatoes I scored the other day, before they start to rot. Due to my debilitated state, my dreams of chutney and kasundi flew out the window til next time but have no fear I was delighted by the opportunity of extending my store of tomato passata. 

Some of you may remember my rather ridiculous injury; hole in foot courtesy of a ukelele tuning peg, well it still really hurts, a hole in my foot the size of 10 cent coin, no skin just the flesh, a few mm down, yikes. The amazing Nicole, came over the other day to tend to me; cutting off the dead skin (she used to be a nurse, not that she wouldn't do that anyway, she is that kind of human), bathing in salty water and heading up to the chemist for supplies to disinfect and wrap my foot, she even made me tea! Such a beautiful, kind and loving act. Mary-Anne and Eli have also popped in on me, thank you lovely ones. So I am still hobbling and disobeying all order to put my foot up because, it is so hard, there is so much that I just want/need to do. Scott has been amazing tending to so many things but even still....
Today, I took some new embroideries of mine up to the 'Everything That's Beautiful' Gallery, for an exhibition that is opening on Friday, yikes. The embroideries are of vegetables, see the carrot to the left, there is also a beetroot (of course), eggplant, cauliflower and tomato. This is the very first time I have ever put anything into an exhibition, so I am pretty excited. And, within minutes of me handing them over to Alex (the owner of the gallery), somebody bought one, a friend of Anka, who was in the shop at the time. I couldn't believe it, I still can't. They bought the carrot, as shown here. I will make sure I take some photos of the other vegetables hanging in the gallery.
Unfortunately due to some very important and top secret business in Sydney this weekend, I won't be at the exhibition opening.

Scott at his Bluegrass Workshop at The Workshop. It was a great success with about 13 banjo and guitar players
attending, from the ages of 15 to 65, think this may be a monthly event.

Woo, entertaining the little people, as i slowly ride up to the Workshop to snap Scott, above.